Experimental • Mixed Media • Social Practice • Environmental
50+ Years of Artistic Innovation • Hundreds of Works
LEAVES
Paper + Leaves
Environmental Series • 2019-Present
"In each piece in the series, I use the leaf as a proxy for persons, animals or nature itself. Paper, which often masquerades as nature and life in my work is juxtaposed to actual leaves. Plastic continues to find its way into the paper/leaf dialogs as a reminder of its destructive role in the cycle of nature."
CONFLAGRATION
2019
RUSTING
2019
AUTUMN LEAVES
2019
MOLDED
Table sculpture, 2019
REPLICATED
2019
DROWNING IN PLASTIC
Diptych, 2019
COUPLES
2019
OTHER COUPLES
2019
ECHOES OF DESTRUCTION
2019
COMPASSION
2019
TAR PITS
2019
BAGGED
2019
ENMESHED
2019
WORSHIPPED
2019
FALL
Diptych, 2019
BOXED NATURE
2019
COVID Masks
Pandemic Series • 2020-2021
"The Covid Masks were created during the pandemic and in the middle of my PAPER +Leaves Series. The disposable masks received photo transfers of actual newspaper clippings of nurses, Covid victims, hospital equipment, etc. Leaves represented the life force that was in jeopardy. The masks are presented as a 'wearable' to underscore how personal all of this is to us."
PAPER +LEAVES XX-A
Covid Mask, 2020
PAPER +LEAVES XX-B
Covid Mask, 2020
PAPER +LEAVES XX-C
Covid Mask, 2020
PAPER +LEAVES XX-D
Covid Mask, 2021
PAPER +LEAVES XX-E
Covid Mask, 2021
TREE
Paper Becoming Tree
Sculptural Series • 1984-1988
PAPER BECOMING EUCALYPTUS I-IV
1988
PAPER BECOMING LUMBER
1987
PAPER BECOMING LOGS
1987
PAPER BECOMING MALULEKA I
1987
PAPER BECOMING TREE IV
Tree Illusion, 1984
PAPER BECOMING DRIFTWOOD I
1987
PAPER BECOMING DRIFTWOOD II
1987
PAPER BECOMING DRIFTWOOD III
1987
Waves & Nature
Large Scale Works • 1970s-2010s
WAVES IV
2012
WAVES V
2019
PAPER
Large Works on Paper
Monumental Landscape Series • 1977-1991
"Each series is comprised of unique compositions collaged out of a common printed matrix. I've used chemical and mechanical actions which replicate the forces of wind, water and chemicals to create similar, yet varied local landscapes."
WAVES II
1977 • Collage of 28 silkscreened prints • 40" x 80"
WAVES II - DETAIL
1977
EARTH SYSTEMS II: WATER
1980 • Collage of silkscreened papers • 25" x 94"
EARTH SYSTEMS II - DETAIL 1
1980
EARTH SYSTEMS II - DETAIL 2
1980
CLOUDSCAPE III-A
1977 • Collage of 50 silkscreened prints • 29.5" x 106"
CLOUDSCAPE III-A - DETAIL
1977
CLOUDSCAPE III-B
1977 • Collage of 50 silkscreened prints • 43.5" x 141"
CLOUDSCAPE III-B - DETAIL
1977
GRAND CANYON II
1978 • Collage of 20 silkscreened prints • 29.5" x 169"
GRAND CANYON II - DETAIL
1978
RIVER ROCKS XVII - TRANSFORMATIONS
1989 • 48" x 144" x 24"
PAPER BECOMING BUTTERFLY IV
1986 • Japanese papers/mixed media in 5 Plexiglas cases • 32" x 130"
1986 • Handmade paper, recycled silkscreens, mixed media • 29" x 41"
WALLS 50 SERIES
1991 • Paper/mixed media • 50-B: 31" x 110", 50-A: 34" x 120"
Concealed Passageways
Six Part Series • 1987
CONCEALED PASSAGEWAYS I
1987 • 58" x 36"
CONCEALED PASSAGEWAYS II
1987 • 58" x 36"
CONCEALED PASSAGEWAYS III
1987 • 58" x 36"
CONCEALED PASSAGEWAYS IV
1987 • 58" x 36"
CONCEALED PASSAGEWAYS V
1987 • 58" x 36"
CONCEALED PASSAGEWAYS VI
1987 • 58" x 36"
Music Series
Paper Interpretations of Musical Compositions • 1984-1985
BARNSDALL INSTALLATION
1985
STONE'S STONES
1985 - detail
REICH'S MUSIC
1985
BACH'S FUGUE B-FLAT MINOR
1984
DEVASTATION
Devastation Series
Environmental Forces on Paper • 1980s-1990s
"A continuing thread runs through all my work in paper and it is that I have always pushed the boundaries for the tolerance paper shows in accepting mechanical, chemical and environmental applications. It is as though I was trying to prove that paper is suitable to be a stand-in for the human condition and our resilience to life's forces and stresses."
The Process as Metaphor: In the Devastation Series, each weather condition not only looks like the natural disaster is happening in the landscape, but in most cases, the action of that weather condition has been used to distress the paper. I actually used techniques for treating the paper analogous to the forces of nature acting on the environment: sandblasting (Sand Storm), soaking the paper in water (Erosion), burning (Fire). This was predictive of today's focus on the impact of extreme weather.
AVALANCHE
1980s-1990s
DROUGHT
1980s-1990s
EARTHQUAKE
1980s-1990s
EROSION
Paper soaked in water to replicate weathering
FIRE
Paper burned to simulate conflagration
FLOOD
1980s-1990s
HURRICANE
1980s-1990s
NUCLEAR BOMB
Concentric waves of destruction
SANDSTORM
Paper sandblasted to simulate wind erosion
SMOG
Haze obscures clarity
TORNADO
1980s-1990s
VANDALISM
Human impact on the environment
"By representing and replicating natural process on static works of art and juxtaposing the artwork with the processes at work in nature, underscores the current environmental crisis. The video shows how the work was inspired by nature and also imbues the artwork (which endures after the moving images on the screen are gone) with the power and magnitude of what has been revealed."
— Sandy Bleifer
WALLS
Walls & Graffiti Series
Urban Environment • 1980s-1990s
"The Walls, described by Bleifer as an 'Expression of the Urban Environment,' are logically far less reliant on figural or, for that matter, still-life subjects than her other work, old or new. As in her figural work, Bleifer has given new life to the urban wall by recapitulating it in paper. Her approach is especially sculptural here, often incorporating gaps and intervening substances and structures so that dense webs of forcefully contrasting patterns and surfaces ultimately emerge."
— Peter Frank, Art Critic, Curator, Poet
Walls 55 • 34" W x 39" H
BOOK AVAILABLE
PAPER: Walls - Vulnerability and Resilience of Surfaces
The complete Walls series documented in a comprehensive monograph exploring urban decay, paper manipulation, and environmental metaphor.
BOOK:Paper: Walls - Vulnerability and Resilience of Urban Surfaces Purchase on Amazon →
Southwest Landscapes
Silkscreen Collage Series • 1970s-1980s
"Each series is comprised of unique compositions collaged out of a common printed matrix. I've used chemical and mechanical actions which replicate the forces of wind, water and chemicals to create similar, yet varied local landscapes."
Lake Powell I • 51-1/4" W x 24-1/2" H
COMPLETE SERIES
The Southwest Landscapes series documents Bleifer's exploration of desert and canyon environments through innovative silkscreen techniques.
For over five decades, Sandy Bleifer has transformed paper from a delicate medium into a powerful vehicle for social conscience. Her practice merges technical mastery of handmade paper sculpture with unflinching engagement with humanity's most urgent challenges—from nuclear devastation to environmental collapse.
Working from her Venice Beach studio since the 1970s, Bleifer pioneered techniques that allow paper to embody trauma, memory, and resilience. Her Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial Series (35 body-cast sculptures) toured six cities in Japan and the United States, integrating exhibitions with educational programming that modeled how artists can convene communities around difficult history.
Her Holocaust Series employs mold-infected paper strips and three-dimensional figures to refuse the comfort of historical distance, positioning viewers not as contemporary witnesses but as future observers looking back across time. The Angels Series—nine life-size figures cast from her own body—transforms the same mold into investigations of injury, transcendence, and the arbitration between suffering and hope.
Most recently, her Ikebana Series (25 diptychs, 2010-2018) pairs peak floral vitality with climate-driven destruction, offering a haunting meditation on beauty's fragility in the Anthropocene. Each work functions as both celebration and elegy, documentation and warning.
"Paper memories fold and unfold, each crease a story the world should hold. In fragile sheets lie strongest truths—beauty born from breaking, proof that what can tear can also mend, that what must end can transcend."
From her Southern California studio, Bleifer fuses traditional craft with eco-aesthetics, offering a cohesive vision for our era's deepest challenges and hopes.
