Artist CV

(b 1994GB. Lives and works in London)

Using archival paper and laser-cutting technology, Napier designs and creates intricately constructed paper sculptures that resemble woven fabric. Cut line-by-line to leave the strands of thread visible, a once solid form, is irreversibly changed into one that is extremely fragile and transient, with the hanging works becoming almost soft and flowing. These digitally designed, machine-made sculptures echo traditional weaving and considering how the development of material experimentation has allowed contemporary makers to expand on and learn from traditional textile production.

2020

Public Notice - East London shop fronts 

Common Thread - The New Art Centre 

2019

Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Leeds Art Gallery 

Bloomberg New Contemporaries, South London Gallery 

2018

Rolling Collection, San Mei Gallery, 39a Loughborough Rd, London 

Paper, Scissors, Stone - an exhibition with The Auction Collective, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, 5-7 Dover Street, London 

The WAC Awards, The Bishop’s Palace, Wells 

 

 

2018

The Michael Farrell Memorial Prize - For excellence and innovation in photography and its relationship with form, image and process - Slade (UCL) 

 

Timeout London ‘This unbelievably fragile-looking work is made from lasercut paper. It’s brittle, beautiful and makes me very, very nervouse.’ 
by EDDY FRANKEL 

Studio International  ‘A former sculpture student at the Slade School of Fine Art, Isobel Napier presents a single work: Paper Piece 1 (2018), a laser-cut piece of newsprint that hangs from the ceiling. Napier has manipulated the paper in such a way that it echoes traditional weaving. Squint and it could be a rug or shawl. The effect is both beautiful and haunting. This strange, digitally designed, machine-made object is a ghost of handmade craft – it speaks to the promise of technology and the potential obsolescence of historical practices. Looking at the work, suspended somewhere between digital and haptic realms, I wonder whether in years to come our museums will be filled with such things: neat, spectral forms that approximate a lost cultural past.’