4 Paper Craft Sculptors

4 Artists Who Create Amazing Things Out of Paper

By Kristin Rawls | October 7, 2011 at 7:32 am

Have you ever heard of paper-craft sculpture? It’s just what it sounds like – a sculpture made of paper. What started with Japanese origami arts in the early 1600s has in recent years emerged as a trendy new artistic medium throughout the world: paper-craft sculpture.

This is not the origami you might remember from elementary school art class, but a competitive fine art. Arts schools nowadays offer paper-craft sculpture training to sculpture students. The International Association of Hand Paper Makers and Paper Artists, founded in Germany in 1986, hosts an exhibition and colloquium almost every year.

Here are four amazing paper-craft sculptors who are taking origami art to a new level:

Brian Dettmer

Brian Dettmer is an artist who creates intricate paper sculptures made the pages of old books, newspapers and magazines. “When an object’s intended function is fleeting the necessity for a new approach to its form and content arises… Through meticulous excavation or concise alteration, I edit or dissect a communicative object or system such as books, maps and other media,” he described his work in a 2006 article. “In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating an enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the surface of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each layer while cutting around ideas and images of interest… Images and ideas are revealed to expose alternate histories and memories. My work is a collaboration with the existing material and its past creators and the completed pieces expose new relationships of the book’s internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception.”

American Peoples, 2011, Altered Books, 61\

Prose and Poetry Adventures, 2011, Altered Books, 21.5 x 19 x 4.5 cm, Image courtesy of the Artist and Black Rat Projects

Tower of Babble, 2011, Altered Books, 28” x 10-1/2” x 10-1/2” Image courtesy of the Artist and Kinz + Tillou Fine Art

Ingrid Siliakus

Ingrid Siliakus is an Amsterdam-based artist who works in a Japanese style called paper architecture, “the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper.” As you might imagine, it is a very intricate process. “To design a pattern from scratch, the artist needs the skills of an architect to create a two-dimensional design, which, with the patience and precision of a surgeon, becomes an ingenious three-dimensional wonder of paper. After the design stage, creating a paper architecture art work is done by a combination of detailed cutting and folding.” In 2006, she said: “Working with paper forces me to be humble, since this medium has a character of its own that asks for cooperation. It is a challenge to find this cooperation with each separate paper brand I work with. Working with paper the way I do, namely by means of cutting and folding creating paper sculptures, asks of me to work with meditative precision.”

Big City, Ingrid Siliakus (ingrid-siliakus.exto.org)

Cosmopolitan, Ingrid Siliakus (ingrid-siliakus.exto.org)

New York Times Key Magazine, Ingrid Siliakus (ingrid-siliakus.exto.org)

Shin Tanaka

Shin Tanaka is a Japanese graffiti artist who is known for making paper toys. Like Blackwell, Tanaka’s work conveys a sense of childlike wonder. His work is distinctive for its use of bright colors and bold angles that communicate a great deal of energy and fun. He encourages other artists to make their own paper toys and boasts more than 500 collaborative partners.

Baggies, Shin Tanaka

Boxy, Shin Tanaka

NAO, Shin Tanaka

Bernie Peyton

Bernie Peyton is an origami artist and biologist whose work incorporates an environmental message. He says he tries to show “the fragility” of nature in his work. He makes a variety of animals as well as vulnerable natural habitats.