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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Zim & Zou are a French artist duo that constructs colorful, exuberant paper sculptures with such immaculate craftsmanship, it's difficult to believe that their work is created entirely by hand. Composed of Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann, Zim & Zou met while studying graphic design and were united by their love of tangible media over design software.
Isobelle Ouzman is committed to working with reclaimed materials. The Seattle, Washington-based artist upcycles old hardcovers for her "Altered Books" series, which combines illustration and sculpture to create enchanted hollows inside of discarded titles. With a blade, Ouzman cuts away layers of pages, converting them into passageways into mysterious worlds. She is drawn to organic shapes and often decorates her "Altered Books" with opulent flora. The books become magical forests that evoke the ways reading fiction allows one to dive into an alternate universe.
We huddle over our iPhone screens like the pious do over prayer candles and check our messages with a religious fervor. Our collective worship of technology was the starting point for Carlo Fantin's latest body of paper-cut works. The artist infuses Catholic iconography with designs and logos familiar to social media users, poking fun at contemporary society's devotion to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Toronto-based artist Christine Kim creates intricate collage pieces that explore the idea of boundaries — both in her choice of materials and narratives. She looks to investigate the idea of displacement and how it borderlines transient and permanent conditions. She specializes in illustration, installations and sculpture.
For their current group show, "Paper Cuts," San Francisco's Spoke Art invited a diverse assembly of artists who transform paper into fantastical visions with the help of a blade. Charles Clary, for instance, builds up layers of colorful sheets of paper cut into organic shapes that resemble neon bacteria colonies sprawling across the gallery wall. Clary's loud, vibrant sculptural work is balanced out by the monochromatic shadow boxes of Hari and Deepti, a duo that cuts out narrative scenes from layers of white paper, using the interplay of light and shadow to illuminate their characters. Yulia Brodskaya's delicate works utilize colorful paper in a collage-like style; the artist glues different thin, delicate pieces to create ornamental patterns. Her works for the show are small yet visually impactful. "Paper Cuts" is on view through May 24. Take a look at some work from the show after the jump.