Bianca Severijns
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Projects

  • Projects
    • The Way Home | 2020
  • Commissions
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, Fields of Hope, 2024, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds

    Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds, 2023-2025

    The Fading Worlds series is Severijns’ artistic reaction to two turbulent years of political upheaval, inner-state conflict, and devastating war in Israel. Ideology, humanity, basic dignity, and social values, perceived as axioms, have been fading away, leaving space for a new world, a new reality still unclear. Fading Worlds asks the most pressing question: Which new order will rise after the chaos?

    Working with her self-developed hand-tearing technique, Severijns visualizes life's destructive patterns, its rough and rugged edges, like the multi-tonal, shedding bark of an Eucalyptus tree. The series demonstrates a shift in her practice: abandoning neat, organized patterns and repetitive rhythms in her earlier work in favor of free-shaped, imperfect, torn pieces of paper.

    In 2025, the series was developed into a wall installation, Fading vs. Emerging Worlds, consisting of seven different art pieces. The installation has a puzzle-like feel, and the viewer decides whether the worlds depicted are fading or emerging. 


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    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Optimism, 2023, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
      Optimism, 2023
      Series: Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, Brotherhood, 2024, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
      Brotherhood, 2024
      Series: Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Virgin Landscapes, 2024, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
      Virgin Landscapes, 2024
      Exhibition “Symbiosis” | Wertheimer Gallery
      Series: Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, Home, 2024, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
      Home, 2024
      Series: Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, Lost Threads, 2024, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
      Lost Threads, 2024
      Exhibition “Light as a Feather” | TINT Gallery 2025
      Series: Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
  • Wild Growth, 2023-2024

    The resilience of nature and its perseverance, even in the harshest environments, stands at the heart of the Wild Growthseries. A seedling sprouts between the cracks of a pavement, a tree blooms amidst a used building block, and a green bush pops out of a cement wall — these little moments serve as a powerful metaphor for survival and hope. The series encourages the viewers to learn from the overlooked corners of our world, to remain attuned to its inherent cycles, and to always aim towards the sunlight — even when shade is all around.

     

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    Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Wild Growth 2, 2024, Wild Growth
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Wild Growth 1, 2024, Wild Growth
      Wild Growth 1, 2024
      Series: Wild Growth
    • Wild Growth 3, 2024 Exhibition “Symbiosis” | Wertheimer Gallery Series: Wild Growth
      Wild Growth 3, 2024
      Exhibition “Symbiosis” | Wertheimer Gallery
      Series: Wild Growth
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, Earth Skins 2, 2024, Wild Growth
      Earth Skins 2, 2024
      Series: Wild Growth
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Wild Growth, Hope, 2023
      Hope, 2023
      Exhibition “Moon” | Freshpaint 2023
      Series: Wild Growth
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Seed, 2024, Wild Growth
      Seed, 2024
      Exhibition “Light as a Feather” | TINT Gallery 2025
      Series: Wild Growth
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Wind, 2024

    Wind, 2022

    Having lived most of her life in the Netherlands, Severijns developed a fascination with the fickle nature of wind — it can be pleasant and beneficial. Yet, it possesses the power to shape landscapes for better or worse: creating beautiful dunes, eroding rocks, toppling trees, and, at its most destructive, forming dangerous tornadoes. In a series of five works, Severijns delves into the diverse forms of this invisible natural force: a breeze, a wind flaw, a gust, a whirlwind, and a storm. 

    In 2022, Wind was exhibited at a major group exhibition at the Gustav-Lübcke Museum in Hamm, Germany. The entire series is now part of a private collection in Tel Aviv, Israel.

     

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    • Breeze, 2022 Exhibition “Paper Fascination” | Gustav Lubcke Museum, Germany Series: Wind
      Breeze, 2022
      Exhibition “Paper Fascination” | Gustav Lubcke Museum, Germany
      Series: Wind
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Windflaw, 2022, Wind
      Windflaw, 2022
      Series: Wind
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Gust, 2022, Wind
      Gust, 2022
      Series: Wind
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Whirlwind, 2022, Wind
      Whirlwind, 2022
      Series: Wind
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Storm, 2022, Wind
      Storm, 2022
      Series: Wind Series
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Heavy Light, 2020, Sentiments of Change

    Sentiment of Change, 2021

    Sentiment of Change is a unique joint project of Bikaku Studio (Sia Preminger and Tal Shermeister) and paper artist Bianca Severijns. Metal is the base of Bikaku Studio’s works, a hard material that requires fiery heat to soften; it is shaped by strenuous hammer blows and requires the knowledge stored in the craft. On the other hand, the cotton-based paper in Severijns’ works is a delicate and thin material torn by her skilled hands: hundreds of paper pieces are glued one by one and shaped into organic, voluminous reliefs and tapestries. These contrasting techniques and materials celebrate craftsmanship and maintain a tension between fragility and sturdiness, fullness and emptiness, permanence and impermanence.

    One of the works of Sentiment of Change was exhibited at the 2023 Tel Aviv Design & Crafts Biennale.

     

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    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Ritual No. 1, 2021, Sentiments of Change
      Ritual No. 1, 2021
      Series: Sentiments of Change
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Skin, 2021, Ritual
      Skin, 2021
      Series: Ritual
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Ritual 2, 2021, Sentiments of Change
      Ritual No. 2, 2021
      Series: Sentiments of Change
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Tide, 2023, Reflection

    Reflection, 2020

    During my visit in October 2018 to the exhibition “Modern Times Masterpieces” at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art (on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art), I stood very close to the 50 masterpieces on display and photographed the mesmerizing detail of the brush strokes. The photos were added to my cherished art journal, where I save articles, sketches, ideas, and insights.

    Looking back at the close-ups of these small elements from large impressionist and expressionist compositions, I see stunning independent abstract artworks. The isolated rhythms, colors, textures, and movement of Van Gogh, Kandinsky Klee, Monet, Matisse, Picasso, and Renoir inspired my new Reflection series. Details, nuances, flow, and texture are my signature style, along with an exploration of the fragility and strength of paper that deforms and transforms into a powerful expressive medium. 

    A timely and happy shift is gathering momentum: paper art is slowly being embraced on center stage instead of the craft sideline where I refuse to be! The Whitney Museum is devoting an entire floor to the exhibition “Making Knowing”: Craft in Art | 1950 – 2019 and major art venues are recognizing artists like Lisa Lou, Anni Albers, Sheila Hicks and Ree Morton. 

     

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    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 1, 2024, Fading Worlds vs Emerging Worlds
      No. 1, 2022
      Exhibition “Charcoal and Chlorophyll” | Wertheimer Gallery
      Series: Reflection
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 2, 2022, Reflection
      No. 2, 2022
      Series: Reflection
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Reflection No. 3, 2022, Reflection
      No. 3, 2022
      Exhibition “Moon” | Freshpaint 2023
      Series: Reflection
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Tree Bark, 2024, Movement & Rhythm

    Movement and Rhythm, Essence and The Way Home, 2018-2025

    These three series, Movement and Rhythm, Essence, and the Way Home, result from spontaneous experimentation with layering, merging, and overlapping paper techniques. These artworks, in which hundreds of individually hand-torn pieces of paper are assembled into rhythmic compositions, dominate with intricate, organic repetition. 

    It consists of small-scale reliefs inspired by Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven, a master of bare, minimalistic, timeless, abstract art. Severijns, who grew up near the Waddenzee region in the Netherlands, tends to think of Schoonhoven when she is homesick. Her palette of primarily whites, greys, and greyish blues renders the isolated natural world of the region. Within the “paper tiles” of Movement and Rhythm, she evokes an abstraction of nature: waves of the sea, a breeze moving through a dune or a meadow, or layers of shells may emerge in each relief. 

     

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    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 2, 2022, Essence
      No. 2, 2022
      Series: Essence
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 9, 2022, Essence
      No. 9, 2022
      Series: Essence
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 32, 2020, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 32, 2020
      Exhibition “Sentiment of Change” | Periscope Gallery
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 6, 2018, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 6, 2018
      Exhibition “Art on Paper” | Brooklyn Gallery, New York
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 9, 2018, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 9, 2018
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 12, 2018, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 12, 2018
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 30, 2020, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 30, 2020
      Exhibition “Sentiment of Change”
      presented by Gallery Periscope
      Curator: Sari Paran
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 36, 2021, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 36, 2021
      Exhibition “Sentiment of Change” | Periscope Gallery
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 38, 2021, Movement & Rhythm
      No. 38, 2021
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
    • Sea shells 2, 2024 Series: Movement & Rhythm
      Sea shells 2, 2024
      Series: Movement & Rhythm
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Scratched, 2018, Protective Blankets

    Protective Blankets, 2018-2020

    In the Protective Blankets series, Severijns reimagines the humanitarian relief blanket through the medium of paper. The blankets were conceived with the hope of promoting tolerance and appreciation, and the thousands of paper threads composing each of them symbolize a story on both a personal and collective level. The threads bring forth testimonies of people near and far who either need or provide protection. For Severijns, these people and their stories serve as a reminder to appreciate and never take any sense of security, dignity, equal opportunity, or freedom for granted. The micro paper threads form large woven pieces, which stand for macro-scale ideas of human rights of local and global populations at risk: children, women, political protesters, human trafficking victims, and racial and religious minorities.

    The series stemmed from numerous online images of aid organizations, whose first act upon contact on a site is to offer blankets to survivors – a heartwarming, intuitive gesture. Similarly, the images captured by Japanese photographer Manabu Yamanaka of homeless men wrapped in blankets also bring forth the care, warmth, and protection associated with the blanket. As Severijns says, “We are welcomed into the world in a blanket, and we leave it in a blanket. In the lifetime in between, we need physical, metaphorical, and metaphysical protective blankets for our personal existence and well-being.”

     

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    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Red, 2019, Protective Blankets
      Red, 2019
      Series: Protective Blankets
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Inay, 2022, Protective Blankets
      Inay, 2022
      Exhibition “Paper Fascination”
      presented at the Gustav Lubcke Museum, Hamm, Germany 2022 – 2023.
      Curator: Diana Weber-Lenz
      Series: Protective Blankets
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Thou Shalt Not Kill, 2020, Protective Blankets
      Thou Shalt Not Kill, 2020
      Series: Protective Blankets
  • Vessels, 2017-2018

    Vessels, 2017-2018

    In this contemporary art vessels series, Severijns demonstrates her artistic competence by innovatively enhancing the dexterity of paper, transforming and challenging old techniques, and experimenting with new creative processes. Taking the aesthetic of a bird’s nest as a vantage point, Vessels contemplate the power of displaced people rebuilding themselves a new home.

    The series discusses the complexities of living in Israel, a country of extreme conflicts and disputes. Severijns starts each vessel with the exact shape of coarse black paper pulp and layers it with hand-torn pieces of paper—a metaphor for layers of complexity. Some vessels are intentionally distorted by holes, splits, or cuts to create a sense of imperfection and disharmony. As a whole, the series invites viewers to ponder the fragile foundations of a home.

     

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    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 2, 2017, Nesting Vessels
      No. 2, 2017
      Series: Nesting Vessels
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 1, 2018, Response to Place
      No. 1, 2018
      Series: Response to Place
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 1, 2017, Nesting Vessels
      No. 1, 2017
      Exhibition “Light as a Feather” | TINT Gallery 2025
      Series: Nesting Vessels
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 4, 2018, Response to Place
      No. 4, 2018
      Series: Response to Place
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, No. 5, 2017, Nesting Vessels
      No. 5, 2017
      Exhibition “Light as a Feather” | TINT Gallery 2025
      Series: Nesting Vessels
  • SISTERS, 2017

    "Here are the Eucalyptus trees
    With their dripping leaves;
    In the grey-blue light of early morning 
    They stand together in the grove
    Like nine smooth-skinned, dark-haired sisters. -
    They seem that way (weirdly) Related to me"
     
    [Ron Loewinsohn, from "The Eucalyptus trees," Poetry 112, no. 22 (1968): 105]

    In this project, Severijns has transformed flat, thin paper into three-dimensional “head vessels.” The three vessels making up Sisters, an homage to the artist’s three daughters, further investigate the theme of uprooted identity. 

    Severijns raised her daughters in a bi-cultural environment, leading them to navigate cultural identity's complexities, constantly defining and redefining it on their terms. Furthermore, Sisters addresses the erasure of identity as a result of the state of being uprooted. The paper head vessels, free from cultural values, associations, or symbols, allow viewers to reimagine and explore their own sense of identity.

    The portraits were captured in collaboration with photographer Sigal Kolton to generate an effect of timelessness. At the same time, the striking presence of these three unique individuals, bonded by sisterhood, shines through the camera lens.

    Sisters was part of the group exhibition Not by the Dress Alone at the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem. 

    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Inay, 2017, Sisters
      Inay, 2017
      Series: Sisters
    • Litay, 2017 Series: Sisters
      Litay, 2017
      Series: Sisters
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 5, 2017, Nesting Vessels
      Noe, 2017
      Series: Sisters
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Isolation, 2018, Uprooted

    Uprooted & Nesting, 2016-2018

    “Like the Eucalyptus tree, which was imported from Australia to Israel and successfully became a prominent feature in the local landscape, I too wish to integrate into a new homeland seamlessly.” -Bianca Severijns

    Aesthetically tearing, weaving, merging, and layering hand-torn pieces of paper, Severijns has created two series of monochromatic and minimalistic reliefs, titled Uprooted and Nesting. She shares, “The allure of handwork has always been irresistible to me, a source of endless inspiration and fulfillment.” Each piece has an unfinished quality, a result of the laborious tearing technique, which functions as a metaphor for displacement – a recurring theme in Severijns’ personal life. 

    Uprooted deals with tension, forced separation, isolation, and order-disorder dichotomy. It renders forced uprooting as a cyclical sequence of destruction and regeneration, incapsulating a paradox of stagnation on the one hand and an opportunity for growth on the other. Nesting further examines this theme, taking inspiration from the natural world – specifically an abandoned bird nest that the artist found lying on the pavement near her house. Nesting, therefore, evokes the hope of displaced individuals to rebuild a new nest – or a new home. 

    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Order Disorder, 2018, Uprooted
      Order Disorder, 2018
      Series: Uprooted
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Nesting No. 1, 2016
      No. 1, 2016
      Series: Nesting
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Raveled, 2017, Uprooted
      Raveled, 2017
      Series: Uprooted
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, No. 2, 2016, Nesting
      No. 2, 2016
      Series: Nesting
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Separation, 2017, Uprooted
      Separation, 2017
      Series: Uprooted
  • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Seabed, 2015, Earth skins

    Earth Skins & Layers, 2015-2020

    “It is our humanity’s ultimate moral challenge – saving the planet.” -Jonathan Safran Foer.

    This body of work focuses on paper texture and abstract compositions inspired by nature's cycles. Severijns is intrigued by the moment when the natural world is entirely bare, vulnerable, and eroded. She captures these temporalities by photographing the wild, mainly in a contrasting urban setting, and uses the images as a source of inspiration. Like the shedding bark of the Eucalyptus tree, the artworks are multilayered, revealing more details the longer one observes them.

    At the same time, Earth Skins & Layers embodies a call to preserve and protect our natural world. The series echoes the painful results of climate denial, taking the form of a refusal to alter lifestyles and personal habits that harm the environment and an unwillingness to work collectively to save our planet. Specifically, the works are inspired by the climate crisis in Israel. The country is located in a region experiencing desertification, erosion, pollution, and heat waves from the Mediterranean Sea. Some works in Earth Skins & Layers combine gathered natural materials from this habitat, such as sandstones and dried earth.

    Works from Earth Skins & Layers were displayed at the Tel Aviv Artists House in 2022.

    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Gathering, 2015, Earth skins
      Gathering, 2015
      Series: Earth skins
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Soil Layers 2, 2015, Earth skins
      Soil Layers 2, 2015
      Series: Earth skins
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Grasslands, 2015, Earth skins
      Grasslands, 2015
      Series: Earth skins
    • Bianca Severijns, paper art, paper artists, contemporary art, contemporary artist, artwork, Land Erosion, 2020, Earth Matters
      Land Erosion, 2020
      Exhibition “Light as a Feather” | TINT Gallery 2025
      Series: Earth Matters
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