Everything Papier Mâché
Everything Papier Mâché
Niza Knoll Gallery
915 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204
May 2–25, 2025
Admission: free
Review by Dani/elle Cunningham
Papier mâché and kitsch are often treated as synonymous—evoking memories of kindergarten art projects, possible glue-eating, and a parade of preciously lumpy animal sculptures. In Niza Knoll Gallery’s current exhibition, Everything Papier Mâché, this stereotype remains intact—but like the compounded layers of paper required to make these artworks, there is plenty of depth and intrigue. Glue-eating is (hopefully) left behind, as the featured artists demonstrate how this accessible material can also be transformative, magical, and technically impressive.
An installation view of the Everything Papier Mâché exhibition at Niza Knoll Gallery. Image by DARIA.
Filled to the brim, the gallery has little room to navigate but offers visual riches from floor to ceiling. Similarly, the variety of scale and subject matter is dense, ranging from a satirical chessboard that requires viewing from the floor, to a large, seated baby elephant, and a towering, post-apocalyptic bunny clad in armor. At first glance, many of the works seem purely cartoonish, but upon closer inspection, they reveal surprisingly complex emotion, social commentary, and artistic rigor.
Michelle Messenger, Dog Girl, papier mâché. Image by DARIA.
Particularly emotional, Michelle Messenger’s Dog Girl, initially reads as a playful, dog-headed figure with a bell-shaped body, its limp limbs lending it a marionette quality. After speaking with the artist, who pointed out the character’s small, pointy, slightly lopsided breasts, the humor was disrupted, hinting at how physically and psychically layered this medium truly can be. As the artist noted, the artwork pays homage to her best friend's sister’s frequent joke about her “quadruple mastectomy” during her battle with cancer. [1] Fusing a playful style with reverence, Messenger suggests that viewers confront their assumptions about what papier-mâché—and art itself—is allowed to express.
Deborah Deal Blackwell, Paper Bowl, handmade paper with natural elements. Image by DARIA.
Elsewhere, delicate bowls covered in pressed flowers provide a quieter, neutral moment. Grown, harvested, and arranged by the artist Deborah Deal Blackwell, in Paper Bowl and Nature’s Purposeful Alchemy the flowers highlight papier mâché’s potential to integrate seamlessly with other materials, particularly natural materials.
Deborah Deal Blackwell, Nature’s Purposeful Alchemy, handmade paper with natural elements. Image by DARIA.
These bowls transcend craft, becoming vessels not just of form but of ritual and the artist’s ability to cultivate and create. Papier-mâché, in this context, becomes a method of preservation—of both organic material and memory.
Lisa Michot, All Eyes On You, papier mâché and mixed media. Image by DARIA.
A detail view of Lisa Michot’s All Eyes On You, papier mâché and mixed media. Image by DARIA.
Moving away from the contemplative, Lisa Michot’s All Eyes On You features a surprising use of papier mâché that could be a modern-day outfit design by Queen Elizabeth I (though it couldn’t be worn for long before the ephemerality of papier mâché would kick in). [2] The artist fixes papier mâché eyes elegantly onto black material, displayed on a mannequin so that the fabric covers the whole body, including its face and head, all topped off by an equally covered black beret. Were it not for the bright colors and imperfect, almost garish lines that form the eyes, this artwork could seem quite dark.
Ethan Billings, On The Road To Somewhere Else, paper pulp, cardboard, and glue. Image by DARIA.
While Michot's work leans into fashion, merging adornment with a hint of eeriness, Ethan Billings takes a more architectural approach, using papier mâché to explore space, movement, and narrative. In On the Road to Somewhere Else, the artist uses cardboard to carve out highway-like borders between sections of vibrantly colored paper pulp, anchored by the presence of a large bird. The resulting work feels like it is part map, part spontaneous line drawing where the lines and sculptural form merge to suggest a journey. Gesture intersects with geography, but the unfinished bits at the top of the sculpture suggest BIllings doesn’t take this story too seriously.
Leslie Aguillard, Willendorf Weeds, newspaper and dried palm leaves. Image by DARIA.
The exhibition also comments on papier mâché’s most often used base material: newspaper. Leslie Aguillard’s Willendorf Weeds is formed from that material and palm leaves, speaking to the medium’s accessibility and affordability while referencing the Neolithic Woman of Willendorf, a symbol of fertility that was also accessible in its time. Here, the supposed low-brow nature of the material collides with an art historical subject, reminding us that academic or intellectual merit doesn’t need to be inextricable from material value.
Tami Tamayo, Rough Draft, papier mâché and mixed media. Image by DARIA.
That’s not to say the show doesn’t indulge in outright kitsch—and unapologetically does so, making the exhibition a joyful escape from the outside world. Tami Tamayo’s Rough Draft, a giant pencil resting in the corner of the gallery, and David Moore’s Where‘re My Pants, in which Superman sulks or possibly lurks outside of a phone booth, bring levity and absurdity to the space.
David Moore, Where’re My Pants, papier mâché. Image by DARIA.
These works are playful, even ridiculous, but like most of the artworks, they demonstrate techniques that are no less expert than those used in marble or bronze.
Scotty S., Hot Single Wizards In Your Area, papier mâché and mixed media. Image by DARIA.
Everything Papier Mâché moves the material from the classroom to live somewhere between the realms of the serious and the silly. It’s a celebration of contradictions: ephemeral, not quite archival, sincere with an underlying joke, heavy without the heavy lifting. The exhibition proves that even the simplest of materials can hold infinite possibility when placed in the right hands.
Dani/elle Cunningham (she/her) is an artist, scholar, and independent curator. She writes about science fiction, gender, sexuality, and disability, with an emphasis on mental illness. The co-founder of chant cooperative, an artist co-op, she holds a Master’s of Arts in art history and museum studies from the University of Denver.
[1] From my conversation with the artist.
[2] Queen Elizabeth I was known for her wild fashion. One of her ensembles, depicted in The Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Isaac Oliver, features disembodied eyes and ears—an allusion to her extensive spy network. Christopher P. Jones, “Why Queen Elizabeth’s Dress is Covered With Eyes and Ears: A painting dripping with symbolism,” Medium, March 24, 2022, https://christopherpjones.medium.com/why-queen-elizabeths-dress-is-covered-with-eyes-and-ears-8fef793fbd71.
