47-year-old Akira Nagaya, a self-taught artist in Japan, transformed common paper into amazingly exquisite paper artworks with his hands and a utility knife. Paper cutting is also called Kirie (切り絵) in Japanese. In his early 20s, Akira Nagaya was inspired by sasabaran, a technique of creating food decorations out of bamboo leaves, at a sushi shop about 30 years ago, the artist discovered his passion and began creating from then on. Akira Nagaya displayed his Kirie at his own restaurant, where these intricate creations were noticed by a local newspaper and they suggested to Akira Nagaya that he should exhibit his artworks in a gallery, “that was the first time I even considered what I had been doing as art,” said the artist.
Beautiful Paper Cuttings By Self-taught Japanese Artist Akira Nagaya
Realistic ball pen portraits on newspaper
3D effects by layers of color
Surreal and bizarre river stone sculptures by Japanese artist Hirotoshi Ito
3D animal lace wall sculptures
The art of fruit and vegetable carving is elevated to a new realm in the hands of food artist Gaku
Nature-inspired sculptures made of reclaimed bicycle parts
Extremely realistic mini sculptures
Amazingly hyper-realistic drawings by self-taught Singaporean artist
Wonderful Food Carvings by Ilian Iliev
Painting on stacked books
Large-scale detailed rose paintings
Human bodies motorcycle sculptures
Realistically hand-carved wood figures by Italian artist Peter Demetz
Fantastic chalk drawing art on chalkboards
Amazing ceramic sculptures by Christopher David White look alike woods
Incredibly photo-realistic portraits created by renaissance painting techniques
Life-like doll faces created by Russian artist Michael Zajkov
Mini marvels - Small world created by artist Dmitry Okhotsky
Poetic tattoo design between watercolor and ink wash
Sculptural bodies out of handmade flax