The word “pulp” has numerous connotations, but without this goopy fibrous material, paper wouldn’t exist. After being bleached, strained, pressed, and dried, this formless mass evolves into delicate leaves, belying their humble origins in wood, straw, recycled junk mail, and other organic materials. As the digital age veers away from physical books and manuscripts, contemporary artists are rediscovering the potential of paper and incorporating it into their work. From traditional watercolors, woodcuts, and drawings to RISO prints, installations, and analog collage, the artists in Pulp Fiction use paper as a medium and a metaphor to address today’s nonstop cultural shifts.
Working with cash register rolls, international newspapers, cyanotypes, solar etching, and impressions of mushroom spores, they create visceral handmade work reflecting the world around them. From eerily beautiful papier mâché guns to a flag book illustrating a childhood nightmare, this month’s featured artists investigate community and isolation, explore the connections between geology and emotions, examine our layered relationship to public and private space, and respond to acts of violence. Transforming the pulp of existence into enlightening works on paper, they breathe new life into a classic material while playing with the tension between fragility and strength.
View Pulp Fiction, then scroll down for details about the artists and their work.
Faces and Figures
In her woodblock portrait, “The Crown They Wore,” Traci Mims explores elements of black identity and perception from contemporary and historical perspectives. Cheryl Gross’ dynamic watercolor “BoxingBabe” spotlights the role of women succeeding in masculine-heavy professions. Queen Hibbler’s provocative pastel, “Girls, Girls, Girls,” features figurative imagery against a black background to address the conflicts they face as a Queer Black femme. “Nova in the Garden,” Sharon Jonquil’s tender painting of a child kissing a beloved sculpture, invites viewers to savor the tranquility of the moment. Mingyi Gan’s hybrid pencil and digital drawing “Vertebrate” captures the interplay between vulnerability and detachment.
Nature and Urban Landscapes
“North End at Dusk,” Eli Portman’s moody image of a lone figure perched on a rooftop, traverses the edges between danger and safety, solitude and community, darkness and light. “Carry a Torch” by Madge Evers offers glimpses of a natural world both strange and familiar. Dan Levinson’s evocative landscape, “Harvest,” contrasts swaying plants and scudding clouds with a static horizon. “Together,” Heidi Grace Acuña’s hand-stitched collage of butterflies from Asian locales, presents a lyrical response to anti-immigrant violence. In her Risograph, “Indoors Watching Outdoors,” Olivia Fredricks examines the gaze from inside and out.
Sculpture and Installation
In “Going By,” Eiko Nishida fashions multilingual newspapers into a serpentine sculpture to address shifting responses to critical events around the globe. “Ghost Guns,” an installation of papier mâché guns by Ethan Minsker, sparks a dialogue about mass shootings while emphasizing the volatility of American life. Su Kaiden Cho probes the depths of the soul in her minimalist paper and wood sculpture “Timeless.” “Just as you were about to unlock your door, you dropped your key and it shattered into one million seemingly identical keys,” a flag book by Emiland Kray, sprang from a dream about running away from home. In “Say Ah II (Registers),” Jennie E. Park uses cash register receipts as artifacts to relive key moments from everyday life.
Collage, Photomontage, and Etching
“Just Need Food,” a photo collage by maryhope|whitehead|lee, seems particularly timely during an era of growing food insecurity. Joan Belmar’s embossed etching “Global Twisted” blends history, geography, and geometry, conjuring an esoteric beauty. In “Everything's All Right,” Rene Vasquez layers varnished tissue paper onto an abstract piece of wood to create a call-and-response between internal and external stimuli. “Bop: For The City,” a retro-urban collage by Mitchell L. H. Douglas, merges comic book captions with BOP poetry and hip-hop references. Joan Gutierrez combines vivid color with ephemera, images of food, and ink to explore memory and desire in “Handmade: Red Feed.”
All images published with permission of the artist(s); featured graphic for Pulp Fiction by David Schwartz.