Papercentric

Albuquerque Museum was pleased to introduce Papercentric, an exhibition featuring paper arts from the museum’s permanent collection. Paper is a common-place material that is often dismissed as unremarkable. In artworks, paper is often used simply as a support on which ink, pigment, and other materials are applied. Papercentric featured works that utilize paper as the primary material rather than a substrate for other mediums. Works in this exhibition emphasized the simplicity, flexibility, strength, and fragility of paper and honor the material as a medium in its own right.

Through various techniques including cast paper, paper maché, embossed paper, cut paper, and paper sculptures artists explore the creative and expressive possibilities of paper itself. Abstract sculptural works by Barbara Bock and Susan Wing show the malleability of paper and its potential to transform the space around it in subtle ways. A large playful work titled Souvenirs by Barton Lidicé Beneš includes currency from 42 different countries. Each bill has been folded into a sculpture that is in some way iconic of that country; the square for England holds a 1978 one pound bill folded into a paper tea bag bearing Queen Elizabeth’s portrait. Also included was a prison-art cross constructed out of cigarette wrappers made by Sammy Vigil while he was incarcerated. Paper folding is one of several prison art forms that demonstrates the ingenuity and resourcefulness of incarcerated individuals seeking creative outlets. Other artists included in Papercentric are Jeannie Meejin Yoon, Catalina Delgado-Trunk, Michelle Stuart, Robert Hooton, Judy Twaletstiwa, and Brian Blount.

Papercentric paid homage to the humble sheet of paper and the artistic potential within it.