the art of paper | part II

Tomas Rivas

The Series of Illusionistic Architecture for the Vault of St. Ignatius in Rome

2009

carving and drawing on drywall, wallpaper liner, paint

Chilean artist Tomas Rivas discusses his unique work displayed at Slash: Paper Under the Knife at the Museum of Art and Design.

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Tomas during his residency at Lux Art Institute in Encinitas, California. He was the first artist to reside at the Institute, and I had the amazing opportunity to work with him. His art was unlike anything I had seen before; he took classic, architecturally-inspired designs and cut them into a modern, everyday medium: drywall. After a quick demonstration, he actually handed me (and another assistant) X-acto knives and said, "Ok, you guys try!" I couldn't believe he trusted us with cutting and carving the drywall ourselves. I had taken the volunteer job at Lux thinking I'd be mixing paint or cleaning brushes in exchange for some time to talk to artists, but here I was participating in the art itself! Even when our knives slipped a bit and a cut went too far, he brushed it off and told us it wasn't about being perfect; in fact, he wanted the paper of the drywall to "decay" naturally. (Phew!)

When I heard Tomas was to be part of an exhibition in New York, I decided I had to make it a part of my trip to the east coast. Slash turned out to be absolutely amazing and I am SO glad I checked it out.

~Nikki