Artist Machteld Rullens's Cardboard Art Show in New York.

4 hours ago7 min read2 comments

The stage is set not in a traditional theater but within the white walls of Page gallery in New York City and the Andrew Kreps Gallery, where the rising artist Machteld Rullens presents a body of work so intimately connected to process it feels like a backstage pass to creation itself. Her new show, a revelation of pieces born from her time at the prestigious Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency, centers on a most humble of materials: cardboard.This isn't mere recycling or a gesture toward sustainability; in Rullens's hands, the corrugated fiber becomes a leading character, its grooves and folds, its inherent strength and surprising fragility, manipulated into forms that speak to the very foundations of artistic practice, much like a set designer uses plywood and muslin to build worlds that must feel both temporary and eternal. One can almost hear the quiet rustle of the material as she works, a sound as rhythmic as a stagehand preparing the flats before a performance.The residency, a hallowed space for contemplation that once nurtured the legendary Alberses themselves, provides a rich subtext; it’s the equivalent of a playwright's retreat, a place where an artist can strip away the noise and focus on the essential dialogue between material and maker. Rullens’s fascination unfolds like a compelling narrative arc, asking the audience to reconsider the value and potential of the everyday, to see the poetry in the discarded shipping box, the drama in a simple brown plane.Her work invites us to look closer, to appreciate the texture and history embedded in a surface we normally overlook, transforming the gallery into a silent theater where the set pieces themselves are the stars of the show, commanding attention not with loud colors or grand gestures, but with the quiet, powerful presence of a monologue delivered in a whisper. This is art that doesn't shout but rather draws you in, compelling a hushed reverence for the transformative power of an artist's vision, proving that the most profound stories are often told not with velvet and gold leaf, but with the resilient, unassuming soul of cardboard, a material waiting in the wings for its moment in the spotlight.

#featured

#Machteld Rullens

#cardboard art

#art exhibition

#Page Gallery

#Andrew Kreps Gallery

#Josef and Anni Albers Foundation

#rising artist

Stay Informed. Act Smarter.

Get weekly highlights, major headlines, and expert insights — then put your knowledge to work in our live prediction markets.

Comments

Loading comments...