“A face tells a story of life,” says Marianne Eriksen Scott-Hansen, and honestly, looking at her work, you can feel every chapter. You might already know the Danish artist for her massive, lush bouquets—those incredible paper installations that crawl up walls and fill entire rooms with a literal explosion of color. But while she’s spent the last 14 years perfecting those blooms, she’s been quietly working on something much more personal: paper self-portraits.
These aren’t your typical sketches. Using the same signature techniques of layering, crimping, and twisting, she creates expressive masks that feel like they’ve stepped out of a dream. Some feature braided horns; others are framed with spiraling tendrils that look like a lion’s mane. They are wild, intricate, and deeply moving pieces of paper art.
Marianne describes these masks as diaristic—a way to capture a fleeting moment or translate a feeling that words just can’t touch. She draws a comparison to the legendary Giuseppe Arcimboldo, blending floral details and insect-like elements to mirror her internal world. It’s a way of “pairing” her features with how she feels inside at that exact second.
It’s rare to see an artist bridge the gap between grand-scale botanical installations and such intimate, wearable storytelling so seamlessly. Every fold and crimp in her paper self-portraits feels like a heartbeat.
If you want to dive deeper into her world, she is represented by The Spaceless Gallery, and her Instagram is a must-follow for anyone who loves seeing ordinary material turned into extraordinary magic.
