Araela Kumaraea
Minneapolis, MN, USA | Sculptor, Paper Maker, Book Artist | Resident in 2023 & 2024
Araela Kumaraea is a Minneapolis based sculptor, paper maker and book artist. She enjoys working with plant fiber, natural dyes and organic elements to create sculptures and installations. Intrigued by the variant quality and contrasting forces of plant and natural fibers, her forms emerge visceral and metaphoric, inviting the viewer into an appreciative reverence and beauty of nature as self. Her creative practice is intuitive and exploratory, often combined with her daily contemplative practice. In addition to sculpting, she makes paper and designs mixed-media artist’s books from both natural and found or repurposed objects.
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.
“I created an outdoor installation in the Garden of Dreams, titled “Points of Connection” during my first residency. The installation was the culmination on my observations into multiple intersections all ‘pollinating’ one another, both nature and human-made. Each day, I would witness these connections and make marks back in my studio; the amazing latticework of spider webs, networks of power lines up and down the streets, various plant vines climbing and interlacing over homes and buildings, and the confluence of artists coming together to share. I collected ephemera from each of the many artists, incorporating a piece of their sharing into the installation. The fabric of the installation was created from both local plant vines and natural jute.”
