Mind-bending
Artist’s wild works in paper stretch the imagination
OTHER sculptors work in marble or plaster. Felix Semper prefers blocks of paper — glued on alternating sides so the pages can open accordion-style — to carve the likenesses of Bob Marley, Ernest Hemingway and Jean-Michel Basquiat. You’ll see those and more when Semper’s work goes on display this weekend at a Chelsea pop-up gallery.
Using a 7,000-sheet block of paper, Semper re-created the head and face of Biggie Smalls. The late rapper’s family was so taken by that piece that they invited the artist to attend last week’s Biggie birthday tribute.
But celebs aren’t the Greensboro, NC, artist’s only subjects. When his paper likenesses of Nike’s Air Force 1 sneakers went on display in Washington Square Park earlier this year, people’s jaws dropped.
“They asked how much I wanted for them,” the 53year-old artist tells The Post. “They thought my carvings were the real thing. I pull back pages to open them up and people are blown away.”
Semper, a former real estate developer decimated by the 2008 financial crisis, turned to sculpting as a lark, choosing to work with paper in an effort to do something unique. It worked — and his pieces, which can take three months to complete, go for as much as $120,000.
Wendy Williams counts herself among his collectors and Ryan Seacrest freaked out on-air after being presented with a sculpture on the one-year anniversary of his joining “Live With Kelly and Ryan” — traditionally honored with a gift of paper.
Who’s next to be Sempered?
“Salvador Dalí,” he says. “I like his eyes and his personality and the fact that he was a wild guy. The mustache will be tricky, but that’s OK. I appreciate a challenge.”
If things don’t work out, he can always recycle his medium.