Is paper, life's under-appreciated, undesirable detritus? Here are my Top Ten Paper Artists to prove paper rocks!

Did you think paper was just for the mundane use of bills, shopping lists and having to remember to put it in the recycling?
Think again! 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.  Pablo Picasso and Braque championed collage.
Here are my TOP TEN artists pushing the limits of paper

Paper Artist Li Hongbo 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.

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.

Paper engineer Matt Shlian. (Photo:Matt Shlian)

Paper Artist Angela O’Kelly: “Tufty Necklace”, hand dyed paper cord, felt, wire. (Photo: Angela O'Kelly)

​3. Angela O'Kelly is a contemporary jeweller who designs and creates large scale paper jewellery. She combines paper with other materials – e.g. fabric, felt, metal and cord – and uses a wide range of textile and jewelry techniques constantly crossing the boundaries between sculpture, textile art and jewelry design.
​Find out more about her paper jewellery.

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.
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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.
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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)

Using paper art to promote peace (Photo: Miri Golan)

7. Miri Golan is a peace activist and paper artist who aims to use her installations as a catalyst to unite people of different religious and cultural backgrounds. Many of her works use the book as a symbol of education, wisdom, and spirituality. Golan is the founder of Folding Together, an organization that encourages Israeli and Palestinian children and adults to fold paper forms as a team, turning origami into a collaborative expression of hope for a more peaceful world.

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)

The Brontë Parsonage, from the 'Literary Houses' Series (Photo: Sue Blackwell)

9. Sue 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.

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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