Araela Kumaraea is a sculptor, paper maker and book artist. Working with plant fiber, natural dyes and organic elements, she creates sculptures and installations which speak to our ineffable relationship with nature. Her work emerges as visceral and metaphoric; evoking an embodied essence among viewers. Intrigued by the variant quality and contrasting forces of plant fibers, her forms may appear solid and impregnable or transparent and delicate. Her creative process is intuitive and exploratory, often entwined with her daily contemplative lifestyle. In addition to sculpting, she makes handmade paper, prints and designs mixed-media artist’s books from both natural and found or repurposed objects.
Exhibiting in galleries and shows locally and nationally, as well as in the Netherlands, Italy and Mexico, Araela’s work bridges a global audience. Her work is in private collections and her outdoor ephemeral installations have been exhibited at parks across the country. In her studio practice, she is concerned about minimizing her ecological footprint and practices zero waste in her deconstruction/reconstruction artistic process. Her intention is to cultivate a sacred and collaborative relationship with nature while inviting the viewer into an appreciative beauty of nature as self.
As a master educator, Araela has taught workshops, seminars and classes on paper making and book arts at institutions and organizations around the United States and abroad. For over fifteen years, she has been teaching in higher education and designing graduate level courses including; Art in Service of Social Change, Culture and Creative Expression, Design Thinking, Whole Brain Innovation: Cultivating Creative and Critical Thinking Skills for the 21st Century, and Social Enterprise: Unleashing Possibility, Impacting the Commons and Creative Leadership.
Considered a global citizen and cultural creative, Araela has engaged in a number of social art projects in her local community and world-wide including The Art Lab (co-founder), Social Art Network, Art 4 Shelter and Displaced. She enjoys living into who she is as an artist and holds an unwavering belief that artists are agents of change, culture bearers and vital to the health and well-being of future generations. Araela resides on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe of Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota).
Updated CV available upon request.
Araela Kumaraea 