Paper-cutting art involves paper as a medium. Patterns are cut by scissors and engraving tools such as burins. Considered a folk art, it was a pastime done communally by generations of women that every one of them had to inherit, master, and pass on. These works were mainly created for special events and festivals, with subjects based on daily lives. With a dynamic sense of beauty, paper-cut works produce fulfilling, modest, lively, simple yet artistic forms, between solid and void, yin and yang that manifest on and beyond the plane.
In 2009, UNESCO listed it in the “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. Today, contemporary paper-cutting is active in the international art scene.
The HKU Museum Society is delighted to organize a guided tour of Paper•Cut Art Exhibition: Tradition to Contemporary at Artspace K. This special art exhibition features 90 pieces of paper-cut artworks from seven well-known established and emerging young artists in the paper-cutting genre. Artists Li Yun Xia and Lau Ming-Hang will be present to guide us through their creations.
More information about this exhibition can be found here:
https://artspacek.org
About the Artists
As leading conservationists of traditional paper-cut, Li Yun Xia and Lee Huan-Chan exhibit works that reflect the rich Chinese cultural context of paper-cutting and its classical beauty with unique folk patterns.
Li Yun Xia 李云侠 | 1969 – She came from a farming community in Shaanxi Province. At age six, she began learning paper-cutting with her grandmother and mother. She has acquired a unique style of paper-cutting and contributed immensely to the enrichment of folk art culture. Her works have won many awards in international competitions. She is one of the most important preservers of this precious art form.
Lee Huan-Chan 李煥章 | 1925-2015 had studied paper-cutting for over half a century. He was one of the most renowned paper-cutting masters in Taiwan. He believed in the power of a pair of scissors and fluent cutting methods, bringing a seemingly ordinary piece of paper to life. He had dedicated himself to promote the legacy of paper-cutting through teaching, passing on this timeless art to the new generations.
Lau Ming-Hang 劉銘鏗 | 1975 – is a freelance stage lighting and 3-D paper art designer. He combines paper-cutting art, theatre and lighting to create pop-up book theatre performance, giving the viewers a fresh perspective to this art form. His creations are composed of cut-out Chinese words connecting to form a 3D cluster.
Lee Keng-Chun 李庚錞| 1980 – specializes in applying contrasting colors of paper and multi-layer patterns to present motifs through paper-cut. Western fairy tales are incorporated into his works with the layers highlighting the features and storylines.
Chan Yan-Ting 陳彥廷 | 1985 – reinterprets traditional paper-cut art in a moving way. He explores the possibility of interaction between Western style and Eastern art from, creating a new visual experience, and even extending it to fashion brand design. His “Text & Origin” series was created by using rich shapes to enhance the visual impression with overlapping papers.
Wuba Yang 楊雅婷 | 1987 – She uses color and texture of the paper to depict the beauty and vivid gestures of nature expressed by the veins of ferns. Her talent lies in carving nature such as plant patterns for pure happiness and sharing.
Meko Cheng 鄭凱殷 | 1996 – She extends her creations from flat paper-cutting to 3-D form by making use of tension between the surfaces to construct geometric shapes. One cut after another, she explores “yin” and “yang” in the art of paper-cutting, creating blessings between lines.
