Botanical Cuts: Contemporary Papercutting Demonstration

Join Chicago papercut artist and Guild of American Papercutters Board President Yang Pulongbarit Cuevo for a live demonstration of contemporary knife-cut papercutting inspired by nature.

Working with a prepared design based on flowers, leaves, vines, and other botanical forms, Cuevo will demonstrate how delicate lines, openings, and connected structures are developed with a precision knife. The demonstration will explore the rhythms and patterns found in nature, as well as the choices involved in translating organic forms into cut paper.

Visitors will be invited to observe how individual motifs can be refined, repeated, and combined, and how layers of cut paper can create depth, shadow, and visual movement. Presented as a companion demonstration to The Cut Picture: Contemporary Papercutting Demonstration, this event offers a different look at the medium through botanical imagery and layered composition.

This program is part of the Cutting East to West exhibition. Presented in collaboration with members of the Guild of American Papercutters (GAP), Cutting East to West invites visitors to discover the precision, imagination, and cultural stories held within a single sheet of paper.

About the Artist

Yang Pulongbarit Cuevo is a papercut artist based in Chicago who began as a political cartoonist in the Philippines. Her work often draws inspiration from nature, anatomy, music, and folklore.

As an immigrant born and raised in an archipelago with rich cultural heritage contrasted by a history of political unrest, Cuevo also creates pieces informed by societal observations and emotional abstraction.

Her work has been shown in exhibitions in California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, and Metro Manila, as well as publications including The Chicago Reader. The custom maps she offers at Paperhugger Studio also became an Etsy Design Awards Finalist in 2023.

In addition to her art practice, Cuevo worked as Managing Director for a Chicago nonprofit arts organization focused on printmaking until 2025 and currently co-curates local exhibitions. She serves as President of the Board for the Guild of American Papercutters. On weekends, she hosts a weekly show for 107.1FM, an independent radio station in North Center Chicago.