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The Museum of Arts & Design in New York recently opened Slash: Paper Under the Knife. This is a continuation of a series of exhibitions that look at traditional material and techniques through the lense of contemporary art and design. Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting in 2007 was a brilliant show. Slash couldn’t be more timely. I receive email about new amazing paper artists on a nearly weekly basis. Check out more images from Slash on Jen Bekman.

© Courtesy of Museum of Arts & Design (MAD)

Peter Callesen is, without a doubt, the master of cut-paper art. He transforms flat A4 paper into three-dimensional figures full of narrative, detail, and symbolism. He has seemingly impossible large-scale “paper cuts” and sculptures that are delicate, beautiful, and surreal. Kazuki Takamatsu appears to follows suit with her dreamy three-dimensional figurative sculptures.

Yulia Brodskaya makes use of cut paper to create beautiful typography and detailed illustration. Kado Ueda is another talented paper artist working with colored paper to create intricate, high-contrast, detailed patterns and drawings. Other paper artists, such as Jen Stark, focus on color with more abstracted forms.

You can see more examples of paper art in the blog All About Paper Cutting and in Illustration Play by Victionary. But the best published source has to be Papercraft by Gestalten. This is an impressive book that includes Yulia Brodskaya and other paper-cutting geniuses, as well as artists who seem to be able to replicate any object with paper.

Graphic designers: Bust out your scissors and X-Acto knifes and free yourselves from the ruler!

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

Source: Suzanne LaGasa