Top Ten Artists Pushing the Boundaries of Paper

The blank page can be the scourge for the writer, but for an artist, its beautiful tactile quality and inherent strength and durability means that a blank sheet of paper can be an artistic chameleon; it can be easily transformed from 2D to 3D. This makes it  a perfect material for creativity and the creation of art.
Paper provides the ultimate haptic feedback, it connects you with your environment in the way that swiping on a screen cannot.
Modern artists from the Bauhaus to Matisse helped take paper into new territory.
Here are some remarkable artists who push the boundaries and exploit the sculptural possibilities of paper...

Mind-bending paper sculpture. (Photo: Li Hongbo/Dominik Mersch Gallery)

1. Li Hongbo sculpts using only two materials, paper and glue. He creates by stacking sheets of paper into a block, one-by-one, then gluing them at specific points to create a honeycomb pattern. Next, he carves the block much like a woodworker would carve a block of wood. Whereas a wood carving is static, Li Hongbo's work is kinetic - the honeycomb structures allow these sculptures to stretch and expand like an accordion.
Click here to see his paper artwork in action.

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2. Matt Shlian describes himself as a paper engineer whose work is a hybrid between art, maths and science.
At his teaching post at the University of Michigan he works alongside engineers to discover if origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, can provide a foundation for three-dimensional nanotechnology. This blend of geometry and art and the resultant geometric paper sculptures takes maths into a new artistic realm.
Find out about his paper artwork here.

Omoplata 56 (Double hedgehog) (Photo:Matt Shlian)

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Carved and altered book. (Photo: Isabelle Ouzman)

3. Isobelle Ouzman creates atmospheric scenes within discarded books combining illustration, paper cutting and storytelling.
​Find out more about her Altered Books.

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​4. Akira Yoshizawa was the daddy, the granddaddy, the godfather, the grandmaster of paper folding. The publication of his first collection of models in the early 1950s caused a major sensation in the western world. His designs helped to elevate origami from craft to an art form. 
Discover more about this amazing paper artist.

Stunning paper folding of Gorillas by paper artist Akira Yoshizawa (Photo: Amusing Planet)

Part of her Paper Olympics Series (Photo: Raya Sader Bujana)

5. Raya Sader Bujana dropped out of an architecture degree to study what she does best and loves most: paper art. She has created stop-motion videos, commissioned sculptures and collaborated with major brands.
Her work is influenced by her strong background in architecture, love of nature and its intricate patterns. ​Discover more here.

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6. Peter Callesen works only with white paper, in fact a large part of his work is made that most ubiquitous and underrated material -  A4 paper. He transforms it into playful sculptures of figures that expand into the space surrounding them.
Find out more about his paper cut art here.

Looking Back by Peter Callesen (Photo: Peter Callesen)

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Quilled Tissue Series - Lisa Nilsson. Photographer:John Polak

7. Lisa Nilsson makes astonishingly detailed anatomical cross sections in quilled paper. Her paper constructions explore the complex geography of the human anatomy.
Discover all Lisa's amazing ​bodies of work here.

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8. Masayo Fukuda's mantra is 'Only one paper & One colour world'. Known as kirie in Japanese (translated as “cut picture”), the traditional art form involves cutting intricate forms from a single sheet of white paper and then contrasting it against a black background to reveal the design. Fukuda is a kirie master and makes gossamer-thin, incredibly intricate paper cut artworks of marine life. 
See more of Fukuda's paper cut genius here.

Octopus paper art by Mayaso Fukuda (Photo: Mayaso Fukuda)

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Paper Birches (Photo: Sue Blackwell)

9. Su Blackwell is an English artist who creates fairytale-like book sculptures. She cuts out images and transforms flat pages into three-dimensional objects and constructs entire landscapes filled with mystery and feelings of melancholy.
See more of Blackwell's book art here.

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10. Ron Resch was a visionary. An artist, computer scientist, and applied geometrist, he was known for his work involving folding paper, Origami Tessellations and 3D polyhedrons.
Back in the 1960s, he was at the forefront of developing computer-aided software and a pioneer of  3-D computer-aided software, developing his own called INGSYS.
His work was a unique synthesis of art, geometry, and kinetics. 
Without Ron Resch there would not have been the incredible developments in computer-aided origami design that have been made over the last 50 years.
Watch Ron's  Paper and Stick film - I promise you it will be 40 minutes well spent.
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Ron Resch in Univ. of Utah office with foldings. (1970) Image from Ron Resch official website.