Kirié Paper Art with Kimiko Benjamin

About this experience

Date: February 9th, 2025
Times: 2 p.m.
First session: 12 seats
Duration: 90 minutes
Ticket price: $35 per ticket

Workshop Details
Over the course of 90 minutes, local kirié artist Kimiko Benjamin will guide participants through the world of Japanese paper art, using the tools provided to shape colorful paper into striking designs. Each attendee will leave with several handmade cards crafted under Kimiko-sensei's guidance.

About Kimiko Benjamin
Kimiko practices kirié, the Japanese art of paper cutting, to create images of buildings and street scenes from around Philadelphia and Lancaster, hoping to portray the character of each place through the beauty of the architecture and urban form. Using an X-ACTO knife, she cuts detailed designs into black paper, and then use washi origami to add color, shade, depth, and dimension. Her early pieces were about the size of a napkin, but more recently she has been working on larger kirié pieces that allow for greater detail and more complex composition. Originally from Japan, Kimi has resided in Philadelphia for the last fifteen years.

About Kirié
Kirié - the art of cutting paper into intricate designs - has been practiced in Japan since the early 7th century, when paper manufacturing first began in the country. As the quality of Japanese washi paper improved, so too did the art rendered from it. Today, kirié artists push the boundaries of the form to create ever-more-impressive works, from the three-dimensional cityscapes of Ayumi Shibata to Shu Kubo's colorful windows into scenes from everyday life.