MANCHESTER, NH.- Innovative artists can create remarkable objects from simple materials, such as paper, construction supplies, and light. These elements combine in experimental fashion in two new contemporary exhibitions opening at the Currier Museum of Art on Saturday, February 25, 2017.

Deep Cuts: Contemporary Paper Cutting examines a re-energized art form dating back to ancient China. The exhibition showcases inventive objects made from cut and manipulated paper, ranging from large-scale installations to detailed diminutive works. The objects explore a wide range of thought-provoking subjects.

Soo Sunny Park, a New Hampshire-based artist, has created a new work of art, BioLath, which immerses visitors in a dynamic, light-filled space. Occupying an entire gallery of the Currier Museum, the artist works with construction materials to filter and refract natural and artificial light.

“This spring, the Currier Museum will focus on contemporary art,” said Alan Chong, director of the museum. “Both exhibitions feature objects which have been pierced, cut, abraded, and manipulated in some way. Ordinary, everyday materials take on new lives and new meaning. Much of the work presented this season has been created or altered specifically for the museum. We invite visitors to experience these exhibitions in their own ways. For example, they will be able to craft their own cut-paper objects in a community project.”

Deep Cuts: Contemporary Paper Cutting
While the art of cut paper has been around for centuries (almost as long as paper itself), many contemporary artists have found innovative ways to update the art form, creating whimsical and challenging objects. The works on view vary from the intimate and detailed to monumental and awe-inspiring. Some artists employ unusual methods to push the limits of what paper can do, such as cutting it with a belt sander or even knitting shredded paper.

Deep Cuts redefines the traditional craft of paper cutting. Although many of the objects are intricately detailed, they can be unconventional in terms of scale, content or construction. Some artists make sculptural objects that challenge the assumed flatness and fragility of paper, while others cut documents to explore the information and power that has become associated with these materials.

“The endlessly inventive artists featured in Deep Cuts create work that is as visually arresting as it is conceptually rich,” said Samantha Cataldo, exhibition curator. “In the dawn of a so-called paperless society, their work stands in striking opposition to our digitized world.”

The artists featured in the exhibition are: Elizabeth Alexander, Noriko Ambe, Hina Aoyama, Doug Beube, Ambreen Butt, Jonathan Callan, Rob Carter, Charles Clary, Brian Dettmer, Andrea Dezsö, Lauren Fensterstock, Adam Fowler, Randy Garber, Meg Hitchcock, Jim Hodges, Li Hongbo, Fred H C Liang, Marco Maggi, Youdhi Maharjan, Stefana McClure, Lisa Nilsson, Julian Opie, Shannon Rankin, Nikki Rosato, Kim Rugg, Mathias Schmied, Jane South, Jill Sylvia, Sarah Sze, Yuken Teruya, Robert The, Randal Thurston, August Ventimiglia, Mark Wagner, Kara Walker and C.K. Wilde.

A 40-page, full-color catalogue will be available for $10 at the Currier Museum shop and Amazon.com.

Soo Sunny Park: BioLath
New Hampshire-based installation artist Soo Sunny Park experiments with light and biomorphic shapes in her new work, BioLath. She uses metal lath, a flat construction material normally hidden in walls behind plaster, to create curved translucent objects. Organic in form but industrial in material, her sculptural installation explores the relationship between nature and artifice, and between the natural and the built environment. Park’s biomorphic objects will fill the museum’s Putnam Gallery. Both natural and artificial light will filter through the objects, creating an ever changing composition of shifting shadows and patterns on the walls.

“My earlier work used light as a sculptural material, in that the reflections and shadows are part of the work, not incidental byproducts of it,” said Park. “In BioLath, I wanted to incorporate the shadows as drawings, and animate the lines of shadows as an active element of the installation.”

“In this ambitious work, Park explores the metaphorical gray area between various boundaries, including those which divide sculpture and drawing, vision and perception, light and shadow, and interior and exterior,” said Samantha Cataldo, the exhibition’s curator. “We are thrilled to have her transform our visitors’ interactions with the museum’s architecture through her art.”

Soo Sunny Park’s work has been displayed throughout the United States, as well as globally in places like Korea and the United Arab Emirates. She received her B.F.A. in painting and sculpture from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio and a M.F.A. in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Park has received numerous awards and grants including a Joan Mitchell M.F.A. Grant. She currently lives in New Hampshire and is a professor at Dartmouth College.