Three Cincinnati artists opened their mixed media show, Façade, at Marshall University’s Birke Art Gallery Jan. 11, showcasing collage elements in a copy and paste fashion.

Jordan Tate and art duo Future Retrieval, made up of Guy Michael Davis and Katie Parker, run the photo and ceramics departments at the University of Cincinnati.

The trio’s collaborative efforts in creating Façade began summer 2015 as a way to have fun and branch out of their comfort zones.

“We decided to just do this one kind of off thing that maybe we would never do separately, but we could use this as a reason to hang out, make some work and get a little outside of our normal every day,” Tate said.

The trio’s statement describes the showcase as employing humor and homage while borrowing and combining high-low approach to a mixed media English garden.

The pieces of Façade include a printed fabric hedge, distorted plaster molds of the iconic David by Michelangelo and a row of niches replicating historic artifacts, yet morphed until unrecognizable.

“It was a lot of playing with what we have in our studios and then bringing those together to make art that we could all get behind,” Harper said. “This is us and we’re just having fun. Nothing has to be anything.”

After the exhibition at Marshall, Tate and Future Retrieval will move the show to the Spring Break Art Fair in New York City.

“We are just happy to be here,” Harper said. “As people who are kind of stuck in what we do it’s nice to be given these opportunities to be playful and have a gallery that’s like ‘whatever you guys would like to do we are up for it.”

Façade can be viewed at the Birke Art Gallery weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Feb. 19.

Leah Cook can be contacted at [email protected]