Paper, scissors, rulers, and glue — Michael Velliquette MA’99, MFA’00 has built an international reputation working with materials you’d find in any school classroom. Although his mundane tools have a cozy familiarity, the magic Velliquette conjures with them will take your breath away.

Over the past 20 years, the UW–Madison assistant professor of art has shaped paper and cardstock into room-sized installation pieces, brilliantly colored collages, and densely patterned constructions that evoke mandalas, clockwork, and architectural models.

In his paper sculptures, Velliquette leaves “no flat surfaces and not one spot unembellished, even in the spaces invisible to the viewer,” writes essayist Wendy Atwell in a 2020 catalog of Velliquette’s work. “He spends anywhere from 300 to 500 hours to make each one. He cuts around 5,000 pieces of paper that he rolls, stacks, and glues together, using a variety of techniques.” These techniques include the ancient arts of Chinese quilling and Japanese kirigami, which uses folding and cutting to make 3D objects.

Velliquette’s years of patient, focused exploration have resulted in some of the most ambitious, awe-inspiring pieces ever created with paper and glue.

From Performance Art to Paper

The artist’s dedication to paper evolved through chance and circumstance, a winding path almost as intricate as his sophisticated sculptures. As an undergraduate at Florida State University in the 1990s, Velliquette focused on performance and installation work. But as a student artist intent on creating performance environments, he needed affordable materials that were easy to source, deconstruct, and store. These early set pieces, which survive only in photos and video, were made largely with cardboard, paper, fabric, and paint. Loose and improvisational, they convey themes of discovery and play.

“My BFA was such a rich, wonderful experience,” Velliquette recalls. “I went into college not even thinking that art was an option, and I left so passionate and clear about what I wanted my life to be.”