Interdisciplinary artist Crystal Wagner employs paper in exciting new ways, as she explores the ways in which a 2-dimensional piece can fold itself and expand into 3-dimensional form. Over the years, Wagner’s hybrid approaches to printmaking and massive site-specific installations have attracted some impressive commissions from clients that include The Flaming Lips (for whom she created a large-scale installation), NIKE, and Viacom (constructing a 117 ft piece at their headquarters in Times Square).
According to Wagner, she grew up seeking creativity. “When I was a kid I was writing and drawing everyday,” she shared in an interview with Voyage Houston. “I have been digging deep for as long as I can remember. Feeling deeply. When I was young, I drew fantastical birds, born from my imagination.”
As time passed, she trained formally and extensively, having received an MFA from the University of Tennessee in 2008, a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 2004, and an AFA from Keystone College in 2002.
Fast forward to now, her art spans a broad range of materials, techniques, and processes. Her large and small bioforms, while abstract in nature, are born of the same ecological structure and language of flora and fauna, with her installations are now being exhibited extensively in the U.S. and abroad.
Take a look at some of her impressive work in the gallery below.
