About
Zai Divecha (she/her) is a San Francisco-based artist whose work provides a quiet, calm respite from an overstimulating world. By folding, pleating or rolling sheets of white paper, she creates intricate patterns of light and shadow in both sculptures and stop-motion videos. Divecha has shown at Heron Arts, Marrow Gallery, the American Craft Council, and West Coast Craft; collectors include Letterform Archive, Twitter, Instagram, Square, and Google.
Follow on Instagram for behind-the-scenes photos from the studio. Clean NFTs available on objkt.one, Versum and Teia.
Pronunciation: Zai rhymes with “hi.” Divecha is pronounced “dih-VEY-chuh.”
ARTIST STATEMENT
Paper is such an ordinary, unassuming material. We come into contact with it every day: we sign receipts, open envelopes, jot down to-do lists. In these contexts, paper feels mundane and ephemeral, simply a means to an end. With just a few strategic, delicate alterations, though -- a precise series of folds, or a collection of tiny cut flaps -- I’m able to transform the material into something totally different. I love creating permanent sculptural works out of such a familiar, expendable substrate.
I use a variety of techniques in my work, like pleating, rolling, incising, and folding. I typically create one “unit” -- an incised flap, a pleated strip, or a rolled-up cone, for instance -- and then repeat it dozens or hundreds of times to create a larger pattern. I often try to balance geometric and organic elements in my work. And I draw pattern inspiration from a variety of sources, both natural and human-made: bathroom tiles, clouds, storm drains, the “skeletons” of dead cactuses, peeling bark, raindrops on a car window, rock formations, ornate screens in Islamic architecture.
In the last few years, I’ve constrained my work to an all-white color palette. I’m pretty sensitive to my environment (sounds, smells, temperatures), and I’ve found that I’m calmer and happier when I’m “turning the volume down” on all kinds of sensory inputs. For instance, I’ve switched to mostly fragrance-free home and body products, I keep earplugs in my purse at all times, and I frequently leave events as soon as I’ve hit my threshold for noise. In my creative practice, I try to create the kind of visual stimuli that I want to be surrounded by. The all-white palette allows me to create pattern and texture with just light and shadow alone, which feels soothing to me. I aim to create work that makes people feel centered, quiet, and focused. I want my work to feel like a respite from an overstimulating world.
Contact
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CV
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Solo Exhibition, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA (forthcoming)
2023 Group Exhibition, Between The Lines, Seed Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 Two-Person Exhibition, Gensler, San Francisco, CA
2023 Solo Exhibition, Phase Shift, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA
2022 Group Exhibition, Paper Show, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA
2019 Group Exhibition, Sanctuary, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA
2019 American Craft Council, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
2019 San Francisco Design Week, Aplat, San Francisco, CA
2019 Solo Exhibition, White Noise, Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2019 Art Market, Marrow Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
2017 Group Exhibition, Loczi Design, San Francisco, CA
2015 Group Exhibition, Tools to Table, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
2015 Group Exhibition, Science of Art, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
COMMISSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS
2021 Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA
2021 Unity Technologies, San Francisco, CA
2020 PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Inc, San Francisco, CA
2019 Instagram (Meta, Inc), Menlo Park, CA
2019 Nest (Google, Inc), Mountainview, CA
2019 Twitter, Inc, San Francisco, CA
2019 Square, Inc, San Francisco, CA
2016 DocuSign, Inc, San Francisco, CA
2016 Box, Inc: Redwood City, CA
RESIDENCIES AND HONORS
2023 Distinguished Fellowship, Winter Artist Residency, Penland School of Craft, Baskerville, NC
2022 Artist in Residence, Jennings Hotel Artist Residency, Joseph, OR
2019 Artist in Residence, Getaway Artist Fellowship, Catskills, NY
2019 Winner, “36 Days of Type” Design Competition, Adobe
2009 Lohmann Prize: Excellence in Undergraduate Printing and Design, Yale
SELECTED PRESS
Colossal, “Mesmerizing Paper Sculptures and Animations by Zai Divecha Convey the Subtlety of Change,” Feb 10, 2023
Design Milk, “Zai Divecha Turns Plain White Paper Into Geometric Sculptures,” Jun 15, 2021.
Letterform Archive, “This Just In: Quiet Type by Zai Divecha,” May 6, 2021
Adobe Blog, “36 Days of Type: Learn All About the Six Winners,” Jun 13, 2019.
SPEAKING AND TEACHING
2023 Artist Talk, Gensler, San Francisco, CA
2023 Artist Talk, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Architecture & Urban Planning, Milwaukee, WI
2022 “Turning Paper Sculptures into Stop-Motion Videos,” Eyeo Festival, Minneapolis, MN
2022 Artist Talk, Paper Show Group Exhibition, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA
2022 “36 Days of Type, Paper Sculpture Edition,” Letterform Archive, online
2021 Papercraft Fundamentals Workshop, The Level Up Project, online
2019 Artist Talk, Sanctuary Group Exhibition, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA
2019 Paper Folding Workshop, Zai Divecha Studio, San Francisco, CA
2015 TIG Welding Classes, The Crucible, Oakland, CA
EDUCATION
2011 MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT
2010 BS in Psychology, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa (top 5%), Yale University, New Haven, CT,