Artist Manisha Parekh is also a paper aficionado. She cuts, pulps and presses her own paper, and her art, which spans drawing, collage and painting, is an example of how expressive paper can be. If you share her love of paper, sign up for this workshop and enjoy an hour of DIY fun as Manisha shares creative ideas of reusing old paper–including everything from newspapers, magazines, and gift wrapping paper to receipts, junk mail, letters, paper carry bags and more–to create beautiful personalised gift objects and artworks.

Manisha Parekh was born in Gujarat in 1964 and raised in New Delhi. She holds an M.A. in painting from both the Royal College of Art in London (1991-93) and the M.S. University in Baroda (1983-1990). Parekh is one of the few artists working in India today who continues to explore an exclusively abstract language. It could be said that her works are indebted to the ethereal abstractions of Gaitonde and the geometric draftsmanship of Nasreen Mohammedi who taught her in Baroda, as well as the more gestural ink drawings of Jeram Patel. She has developed an artistic practice which also pays reference to the craft and textiles traditions of her native land. The artist straddles painting, collage and drawing to create works that incorporate both the geometric and the organic. Her most recognized works are created by layering shapes cut from handmade papers into dense fields of pattern and energy, sometimes perforating the surface and adding other materials.