I’ve been thinking a lot about the art of cut outs. I love the way it looks. Here’s 3 artists that are using cut outs in their work. The first one is Mia Pearlman. A lot of her work is paper. She layers these large pieces of paper that have been intricately cut to create site specific installations that have a dense lushness that borders on chaotic. She recently finished a public commission. “UPLIFT is a permanent, site-specific, indoor-outdoor sculpture made of waterjet cut stainless steel and aluminum, commissioned by Liberty Mutual Insurance Group for their new headquarters in Back Bay, Boston.”
The second artist Chris Natrop is also using the technique of cutting out areas to make beautiful intricate patterns. He uses different materials and techniques to achieve these lacy pieces. This piece called Life Above the Fray is 55 x 55 x 180 inches, is acid cut stainless steel with polished mirror finish acid cut stainless steel.
Lily Ponder is 65 x 90 inches (each half) 130 x 90 (total) made out of laminated mirrored and clear acrylic sheet.
Big Brass Bayou is a site-specific artwork created for Baker & McKenzie, Houston.
“Made of 91 pieces of mirror-polished brass, Big Brass Bayou is an abstracted montage of a meandering wetland. While the overall composition and imagery are products of the artist’s imagination, the general concept is, in part, motivated by Houston’s Buffalo Bayou and its native river plants and flowers.
The intial artwork was created in the studio out of hand-cut paper. The contoured imagery resulting from those paper silhouettes were electronically transferred into the computer for further development. Finished outlines were loaded into a 3D computer model and then physically fabricated out of highly polished brass sheeting. The actual metal cutting was done via photo-chemical etching, an acid-based process that cuts through the brass precisely without distortion. Each component was then hand polished and installed in this precise configuration.” excerpt
Denice Bizot uses found shovel heads in her cut out work transforming them into delicate lace inspired sculptures.
“An interest in found objects, particularly metal, has captured my attention for 15 years. Like many cities undergoing gentrification, New Orleans is replete with discarded metal, miscellaneous street junk and salvage yards teeming with all sorts of debris. For me, the idea of reclaiming, deconstructing and transforming “so-called junk” into works of sculpture is fascinating. Often reworking the surface in terms of color and texture is required to bring out an attractive exterior once covered in mold or metals pitted by weather.” Denice states (excerpted from her website)