As the Tang dynasty disintegrated, Chinese artists sought permanence within nature, retreating into the mountains to find a sanctuary from real world chaos. Following in the footsteps of her creative heritage, Beijing based artist Fu Xiaotong updates traditional Chinese landscape painting with a modern twist. Using only a tiny needle, she meticulously pierces thousands of pinholes into large sheets of Xuan paper in a repetitive manner similar to Pointillism. It’s difficult to appreciate the scale and detail of her work through these images alone, some measuring larger than Xiaotong herself, who stands on a tall ladder to reach the peaks of waves and mountain tops that each picture depicts. She titles each “drawing” with the number of pinpricks it took to create it; “713,700 Pinpricks”, depicts a majestic snowy topped mountain with rugged peaks, a motif that plays a prominent role in Chinese art. Mountains not only offer a life in seclusion, devoid of restraints, but they also represent nature’s sheer power and grandeur. By evoking this antique style, Xiaotong identifies herself with the values associated with the old masters. Her work is no longer about the description of the visible world; it becomes a means of conveying the inner landscape of her heart and mind. She is currently exhibiting new works in “Land of Serenity”, on view at Chambers Fine Art in New York through March 26th, 2016.
Armed with a pair of scissors, Huntz Liu's multilayered paper collages have the viewer guessing which geometric forms offer actual depth or just give the illusion of it. With names like "Color Chasm," "Gravity," and "Boxy Configurations," the artist acknowledges that playful deception that carries across the works in his new show at Thinkspace Projects, which runs through Oct. 5 at the space.
Italian artist 
Lucila Biscione creates surreal scenes with paper, ink, and pencil, with lush backdrops and roaming creatures. The Buenos Aires-born, Berlin-based “papercut" artist primarily uses muted tones in the works shown here, adding to worlds that appear either ancient and lived-in—further underscoring their fairytale quality.