S u Blac k we l l Path way of C rumbs
front cover :
Kamouflage, 2025 Paper cut sculpture with wooden box 29 × 20 × 21 cm
S u Blac k we l l Path way of C rumbs
PRIVATE VIEW
Wednesday 25 November, 5–8pm EXHIBITION
26 November 2026 – 25 January 2027
LONG & RYLE 4 John Islip Street London SW1P 4PX t: +44 (0) 20 7834 1434 • e: gallery@long-and-ryle.com www.longandryle.com • mon – fri 10 – 5:30 front cover: Kamouflage, 2025 Paper cut sculpture with wooden box, 29 × 20 × 21 cm
Su Blackwell is Britain’s foremost paper sculptor who astonished the art world when she graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2003 with her unique atmospheric miniature dioramas. Using a scalpel Blackwell cuts and glues the pages of books to create her book sculptures glowing with lights in wood and glass boxes, like Victorian relics found in a museum of intrigue. Blackwell’s work has been included in many exhibitions internationally and has been purchased for permanent collections at the V&A, The Brontë Parsonage Museum, and The Burns Museum, Scotland, and has featured in the National curriculum. This 2026 exhibition ‘Pathway of Crumbs’ is a collection of ideas born out of books that have been in her possession for a number of years, books that she has revisited, mulled over, and dissected. As a provider of material on the one hand, and a bearer of content on the other, the book is the germ cell of Blackwell’s work. As a single mother Blackwell moved from London to the coastal town of Hastings.
Reflecting on this, she says, “It has given me the space to reflect on the natural world and folkloric history that surrounds this area.” Underpinning many of Blackwell’s new works, is her interest in ‘fairy tales’. The exhibition title ‘Pathway of Crumbs’ is taken from the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, but is also, representative of Blackwell’s personal journey of emotional discovery, representing moments of reflection, introspection, and creative contemplation, culminating in a sense of freedom. Though the path is not linear, each work is a step in reclaiming the artist’s voice, while finding beauty in the process. One can draw parallels to the work of Marina Warner and Angela Carter, who use fairy tales as powerful vehicles for meaning. Spanning across fifteen works of sculpture, animation, and installation, the exhibition draws materially, conceptually and exclusively from books. Blackwell finds her books – or lets them find her – by
trawling through second-hand book shops. The literary histories and stories of these books interest Blackwell, ranging from classification to natural history, and narratives on travel, escape and transformation, as much as the physical presence of the book itself. The damaged frays and stains created by time, become a record of past events within the book-cut pages. This makes the viewer’s relationship with the contents immediate and visceral, and in turn tells another contemporary, visual story. Books become both medium and metaphor: reflecting on the human urge to document, to find order in chaos, and to chart a course through the unknown. From this, Blackwell creates threedimensional worlds where her poetic observations of the natural world become sublime. The use of glass domes act as ‘protector’ and ‘container’ of the stories. Blackwell’s work is not only constricted to a static art form, but her interest in animation which will be displayed in this exhibition,
has led to impressive collaborations, most recently with Hide Restaurant, London, The National Trust and Chatsworth House. Su Blackwell’s artistic transformation to the medium of sculpture happened while studying textiles at the RCA. She continued her experimentation with paper, hanging works in forests, burying paper in the earth, and continuing to test its enduring nature as a medium. This exhibition will encapsulate the fusion of art and literature that has led to Blackwell’s success. Created from a medium that is both fragile and transient, these enduring fairy tales have evolved into tangible and haunting sculptures. ‘Exquisite craftsmanship combined with an underlying narrative and overlying sense of fairytale magic makes her work stand out from the paper crowd’ – Jane Audas, 2010.
Fallen Dust, 2026 Paper cut sculpture in wooden box with lights 25 × 20 × 30 cm
Break off my Branches, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in wooden frame, glass optional 115 × 16 × 85 cm
Breadcrumbing, 2025 Paper cut sculptures wooden box with lights 36 × 22 × 24 cm
Birds in a Rose Bough, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in wood and glass box 28w × 26d × 21h cm
Coming Home to Myself, 2025 Paper cut installation 200 × 100 × 150 cm
If I Could Give You All the Treasure, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in glass dome with lights 15 × 20 cm
Kamouflage, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in wooden box with lights 29 × 20 × 21 cm
Kamouflage II, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in glass dome with lights 11 × 19 cm
Words Are Like Water, 2026 Paper cut sculpture in acrylic box 30 × 22 × 15 cm
On the Edge, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in wooden box 35 × 25 × 22 cm
Observer Book of Birds, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in glass dome 25 × 15 × 40 cm
In Flight, 2025 Paper cut sculpture in wooden box 112 × 29 × 17.5 cm
Uprooting, 2024 Paper cut sculpture in wooden box with lights 30 × 20 × 30 cm
Su Blackwell Born: 1975 Sheffield U.K Lives and Works Hastings, UK
Qualifications & Training 2001-2003 MA Textiles, Royal College of Art, London 1997-2000 BA (Hons) Art & Design, Bradford College of Art and Design
Solo Exhibition 2026
‘A Pathway of Crumbs’, Long and Ryle Gallery, London
2021
‘Into the Dark Woods’, Long and Ryle Gallery, London
2018
‘Forests, Folk Tales and the Sea’, Long and Ryle Gallery, London
2015
‘Dwelling’, Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo
2012
‘Tales from The Enchanted Forest’, Long and Ryle Gallery, London ‘Pretty Maid Ibronka’, Faculty of Fine Arts, Montenegro
2011
Bishop Faculty Fellow 2011, ‘Selected Works’, The Center for Book Arts, New York
2010
‘Happily Ever After’, Long and Ryle, London ‘Remnants’, The Bronte Parsonage Museum,Haworth,UK
2009
‘All the Things I love are going to Disintegrate’ The Scottish Gallery’ Edinburgh
Selected Group Exhibitions 2026
The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial, Saatchi Gallery, London Fairy Tales, The British Library, London
2022
Fascination Paper, Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm, Germany
2018
The Second Skin. Nature - Clothing, Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany
2017
Book Worlds, Museum Sinclair-Haus, Frankfurt, Germany
2014
ShowStudio, London
2013
Sotheby’s Presents, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire Victoriana – The Art of Revival, Guildhall Art Gallery, London
2012
The First Cut, Manchester Art Gallery, UK
2009
Can Art Save Us? Millennium Gallery, Sheffield Slash: Paper under the Knife, Museum of Modern Art and Design, New York
Work in Public Collections National Art Library, V&A Museum London National Art Gallery Cardiff Palgarve Macmillan Headquarters, London Sir Kenneth Green Library, Manchester Metropolitan University
The Bronte Parsonage Museum, Haworth, West Yorkshire Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield The Burns Museum, Alloway, National Trust Scotland
Projects and Commissions 2023-26 Batemans House, National Trust England 2023
Caro & Selig, Marriott Hotel Group, Tegernsee
2019
Peckover House, National Trust England
2018
Art Installation, Spinocchia Freund London Art Installation, Hide Restaurant, Mayfair, London
2017
Art Installation, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire
2016-18 Plumlines, Art Installation at Croome Court, National Trust England 2013
Curator, Beyond the Book Exhibition, Bovey Tracey Design for Liberty Art Fabrics, A/W14 Collection, Liberty London
2012
The Fairy Tale Princesses for ‘Thames and Hudson’ (Thames and Hudson Books, 2012)
2011
Set Design for The Snow Queen, Rose Theatre, Kingston Upon Thames
Selected Commercial Projects 2019
Time Magazine, US
1205-17 British Airways, Worldwide 2011
Fairmont Hotels, Worldwide
2010
Window Display for Nicole Farhi, London Stores Crabtree and Evelyn, Worldwide
Awards 2012
The Fairy Tale Princesses ‘Thames and Hudson’, Crescer’s Best Children’s Book of 2012
2010
Window Display for Nicole Farhi, London Stores, Winner of VM & Display Awards, Best Christmas Window 2011
2008
Beringer “Vineyard” Commercial, Voted Best Ad on TV, 2007
Selected Teaching 2016
Putney School of Art and Design, London
2012
Faculty of Fine Arts, Montenegro
2011
University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury
Selected Publications 2013
Victoriana ‘A Miscellany’ by Sonia Solicari
2011
Anti-Tales ‘The Uses of Disenchantment’ by Catriona McAra Book Art ‘Iconic Sculptures Made from Books’ by Paul Sloman
2009
Slash ‘Paper Under the Knife’ by David Revere McFadden
Published by Long & Ryle Gallery 2026 Catalogue © Long & Ryle Gallery All works © Su Blackwell
LONG & RYLE 4 John Islip Street London SW1P 4PX t: +44 (0) 20 7834 1434 e: gallery@long-and-ryle.com www.longandryle.com Monday – Friday: 10 – 5:30
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