Maria Colls’ work is driven by her fascination with geometry and the mathematical structures inherent in our natural environment. Colls’ hand-cut paper-works are somewhat sculptural, she uses a surgical blade to slowly cut paper away, exposing or revealing the design from the paper and experimenting with positive and negative spaces. Colls uses layering to create a sense of depth and movement in her abstract works. Emerge shows delicate layers of paper cut into perfect abstracted concentric hexagonal shapes, reminiscent of a fractional honeycomb.

The artist says, “Transforming a lifeless two-dimensional substrate into an almost animate object is a true joy.”

Maria Colls is a self-taught artist who has spent years travelling and living in large metropolitan cities and historical cities, exposing her to many different cultures and inspiring her work. Colls has been a finalist in Waiheke Island’s Small Sculpture Prize three times and has shown her work at Wellington galleries Matchbox Studios and Roar! Gallery and for social fundraiser exhibitions Art4Vanuatu at Bartley and Company Art in 2015 and NO Apologies for Wellington’s HELP, who support survivors of sexual violence. Colls lives and works in Wellington.