Archie Granot

Archie Granot is one of the world’s leading papercut artists. His unique papercuts, inspired by Jewish and Biblical texts, show that the revival of this traditional art form need not be a repetition of motifs and style.

Archie’s complex and impressive works are distinguished by multiple layers of paper, each hand cut with surgical scalpel, requiring a lengthy and intuitive process of creation, a process often hidden beneath the multiple layers of paper. Curves and links are interwoven creating incredible depth, texture and movement to which occasional and careful use of gold leaf and woven papers only adds. His use of Hebrew inscriptions, hand cut in astonishingly precise calligraphic letters, is an integral part of his papercuts. Many of his multilayered paper cuts carry a reminder of the Holy City, a source of his inspiration. Granot often uses texts that relate to Jerusalem, Judaica, Judaism, Israel, and Jewish weddings and ketubahs.

Archie is a self taught artist. British born, he made aliyah in 1967. Before turning to art, he earned a M.Phil in Russian Studies from the University of Glasgow, Scotland and a B.A. in Political Science and Russian Studies from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He created his first papercut in 1979 and has been creating paper art ever since. He has exhibited widely and his work is in public and private collections world wide including: Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Jewish Museum, New York; Jewish Theological Seminary, New York; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C; Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis, Missouri;  Victoria and Albert Museum, London: Yeshivah University Museum, New York.