Biography
Araela Kumaraea of Minneapolis, Minnesota, creates forms with plant fiber, natural dyes, and organic elements which speak to our ineffable relationship with nature. Her sculptures and installations are visceral, metaphoric, and evoke an instinctual embodied essence. The variant quality of contrasting forces of plant fibers allow her work to appear solid and impregnable or transparent and delicate.
Ms. Kumaraea’s love of paper began in 2006 while at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has continued her explorations of the medium, showing her work internationally with recent shows in Italy and Amsterdam. In addition to paper sculpting, she creates artist’s books and is exploring the paper to print process, working with her imagery in 2D. She currently teaches at the University of Minnesota and St. Mary’s University.
At Surel’s Place, Ms. Kumaraea led two workshops exploring the properties of paper as fiber and taught a hands-on and accessible technique to transform these fibers into a three-dimensional vessel.
She spent her residency exploring the organic marks, patterns, and correlating rhythms found in Boise’s nature to create both 2D imagery and 3D sculptural forms. She created an archival book throughout her residency which showcases the seamless correlation between geometries, rhythms, and patterns of nature, all embodied in our being.
WORKSHOPS
PAPER AS SCULPTURE
March 14, 2020
VIRTUAL EXHIBIT / ART TALK
SHE BELONGS TO THE EARTH
March 28, 2020 (Moved to Facebook live)
Gallery
