Paper Creatures

The Old Jaffa Museum is one of my favourite small galleries. There often seems to be something that interests me there, from Dolls Art to The International Exhibition of Contemporary Paper. You can imagine my delight when I read about their current exhibition, "Paper Creatures", an exhibition curated by the artist and designer, and one of the founders of OASIS – the Origami Artists of Israel organization, Ilan Garibi.

"Paper Creatures" features works by 32 paper and origami artists from around the world, including exhibitors from France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Japan, Vietnam, Russia and the United States, as well as some impressive contributions from Israel. The works come from several paper-based disciplines including origami, papercuts, quilling, collage, paper sculpture and pop-up. 

The main theme of the exhibition is not paper, but rather creatures. The artists have transformed their inner world, words and thoughts into spectacular works depicting monsters, strange animals and fairies. Their cultural and historical backgrounds are sometimes apparent too. American-born Patrick Gannon's artworks of cut-paper and wood bring together his life and experience in urban Japan with his upbringing on a farm in New Jersey, where he was surrounded by nature. Suhail Shaikh, an expat Indian papercutter who works in 3D, was as a child shown by his grandmother how to make shapes out of waste material like cardboard boxes and paper. He has transformed his childhood fascination for paper-modelling into the full-time profession of paper art, moving on to representations of his impressions of objects or events.

All the exhibitors are clearly dedicated to their craft and, when up close to the works, one really begins to appreciate the amount of effort and skill that went into producing the intricate pieces. There were many pieces that I particularly loved, notably Julianna Szabo's lizard-like creature and her colourful Phoenix, both inspired by her love of nature, and Madrid-born Victor Coeurjoly's deer-like animal Cierbol (Deer Tree) with its very distinctive lines. Polly Verity, an artist based in Devon, England, exhibited her Beetle-Winged Moondog, Pegasus and Sphinx, below. Her amazingly intricate sculptures are constructed from silver wire bases and then covered them with acid-free paper with folded paper inserts, so that they are a little see-through. The results are both beautiful and unique.

Beth Johnson created her mythical creatures especially for the exhibition. She sketched out her own figures on paper and the origami designs, above, grew from there. There were some names that I recognised. I was already a big fan of Wolfram Kampffmeyer's Paperwolf label, under which he creates and sells both finished sculptures and DIY papercraft kits. His passion is creating new paper sculptures with realistic expressions. Most of his sculptures are of living animals, but a few are either extinct or never existed. All of his creatures are designed on the computer in 3D, and then virtually unfolded flat and then cut out of paper.

The Old Jaffa Museum is located in an ancient building from the 13th century, the Saraya House, which served as a government house during the Ottoman rule. The combination of impressive old architecture, aesthetic arches, niches and pristine white walls, adds an extra dimension to the exhibition.

A good friend commented once she had seen my photos of the exhibition, "You must have been beyond yourself with glee at that exhibition. Looks fab!"

It was.

"Paper Creatures" is due to run until Saturday 29th October 2016.
Museum opening hours: Friday: 10:00-14:00 • Saturday: 10:00-18:00

Sunday-Thursday the museum is open to groups of 20 or more visitors – by appointment.
During holidays the museum will be open on all week days, from 10:00 to 18:00
Holiday eves, and the eves of Yom Kippur and Sukkot – the museum is closed.
Place: The Old Jaffa Museum, 10 Mifratz Shlomo st., Old Jaffa, Israel
Tel: 03-6813624

* This post has been shared on Our World Tuesday and Wednesday Around the World.