Artists: Noriko Ambe, Sonya Blesofsky, Rob Carter, Lisa Coulson, Susan Hamburger, Krista Hoefle, Sarah Kabot, Yumiko Matsui, Mia Pearlman, Andrew Scott Ross, Mary Temple, Kako Ueda

Mixed Greens is thrilled to present the group exhibition, Paper City. All twelve artists in the show use paper to create sculptures, site–specific installations or dynamic wall–based work. Paper is the material, the form and the content of each piece.

Noriko Ambe uses the file cabinet as a metaphor for her body. Each drawer houses canyon–like carvings of stacked paper. Seen from above, the gradually deepening distortions represent both bodily and topographical explorations of the artist’s own landscape.

Sonya Blesofsky's work is directly inspired by daily commutes through New York’s ever–evolving architectural landscape. She is interested in structural failure, construction, development and urban renewal. For this exhibition, she will display a series of concrete blocks made of paper as well as a site–specific installation that covers a gallery window with paper bricks. Both pieces identify the tension between fragility and strength.

Rob Carter’s videos examine paper as both a physical object and a malleable document of the real. In Metropolis, Carter uses aerial photographs of Charlotte, North Carolina, and stop–motion techniques to animate the city’s evolution. The video takes us from the city’s historic roots, through the recent architectural boom and into an environmentally bleak future.

Lisa Coulson uses various colors and weights of paper to create her Sky installation and Nest sculpture. The painted representation of sky contrasts with the less obvious artificiality of her fallen paper leaves, leaving the viewer to ponder the various degrees of imitation.

Susan Hamburger uses foam core to create a domestic setting for Paper City. The white, ghostly sculptures call to mind cartoon worlds where space mimics three–dimensionality, but has neither depth nor weight. Every item in the scene, down to the historic porcelain plates, is an illusion.

Krista Hoefle is interested in how we reconcile natural beauty and the man–made world. For this exhibition, she sculpted an oversized, human heart out of paper and then attached thousands of punched paper holes to its surface. The resulting sculpture is architectural in structure and obsessive in nature.

Sarah Kabot creates installations that dwell on mundane objects and familiar architectural spaces. Through each work, she offers a fresh perspective on items that are neglected, overlooked and rendered invisible. For this exhibition, she will create a site–specific work mirroring the architecture and lighting in the gallery. The paper facsimile calls attention to the weight and fine detail of the original, previously ignored structure.

Yumiko Matsui began making miniature versions of Japanese cities when she moved from Osaka to New York City. She forces perspective in her sculptures by folding and gluing paper to represent objects in minute detail. Inspired by memory and longing, each city street pays homage to her native country and documents a quickly changing urban landscape.

Mia Pearlman's cut paper installation wreathes through space, originating in the south gallery as a swooping visual windstorm, and reemerging in the north gallery as a cyclonic vortex. Her swirling and chaotic paper sculpture reveals an interior weather system that blurs the boundaries between exterior and interiors worlds.

Andrew Scott Ross' Rocks and Rocks and Caves and Dreams utilizes crumpled gray cardstock as a stand–in for rocky, mountainous terrain that, upon closer inspection, is populated by miniature, intricately cut paper silhouettes of people and animals. The tiny civilization bustles with activities suggestive of ancient rituals.

Mary Temple's Paper Rooms each begin as a single sheet of paper, which is folded and cut to resemble a small room. Paint on the interior walls recalls a specific light source streaming through the room’s cut windows. The resulting structure, unfolded and hanging, reveals Temple’s painted cast light.

Kako Ueda's intricate hand–cut paper piece, Dreaming of Foetus, exemplifies her interest in organic beings. Evocative of insect–like creatures, doilies, and kimono patterns, the obsessive, asymmetrical details are direct evidence of the artist’s hand.


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