Paper Lab’ers
Portfolio
Fragments of thought, mapped on paper.
A living archive of self-topographies in formation.
This space is dedicated to showcasing the evolving body of work created by members of the Paper Lab Berlin community. Each portfolio reflects a unique investigation into self-topography on paper—an ongoing research and experimentation process that combines material inquiry with personal reflection.
Here, our masterclass and workshop participants present fragments of their individual explorations, shaped through repetition, labor, and the tactile language of paper. These works are not simply outcomes but active documents of inquiry—where technique, memory, and material meet.
Through these portfolios, we honor the diversity of voices, methods, and perspectives within the Lab, and the ways in which paper becomes a site for mapping thought, form, and identity.
About
Louise Penrice
Artist | Maker | Paper dreamer - UK
“Joining PaperLab feels like stepping into a shared studio of co-experimenters, artists and makers who, like me, are curious about how materiality can be brought to life. I’m drawn to the lab’s spirit of open-ended exploration, where process matters as much as outcome, and where fibres, pulps, and surfaces are treated as living, thinking collaborators. Being part of this community feeds both my curiosity and my commitment to working experimentally with paper”.
I am a mixed-media artist working across experimental papermaking, daily visual-journalling, and intuitive material exploration.
My practice explores how subconscious experiences become visible through tangible form. I work with plant pulps, recycled fibres, soft pastels and found materials to explore edges; of memory, perception and place.
This has recently extended into site-responsive and sculptural installations. By embracing play, spontaneity, and the shifting agency of materials, I explore how patterns and chaos are not only revealed but actively shaped through process, repetition, failure, and chance.
My making is rooted in the act of thinking through material. I work with handmade paper and tactile surfaces to create sculptural forms and experimental objects, where meaning arises not through concept alone, but through listening and embodied engagement. Paper behaves with its own quiet agency, soaked, torn, or cast into labyrinths, it becomes a partner in the process of ‘working through’.
There is a quiet irony in writing with paper rather than on it; the material holds memory, resistance, and possibility. In a recent installation, “Unearthed Grammar”, the drying process reshaped the forms, material matter working its alchemy, becoming part of the meaning: echoing the unresolved, the enmeshed, the unknown.
Alongside these sculptural works, I create Morning Pages, a daily pastel practice where subconscious imagery surfaces intuitively in quick, titled pieces that echo recurring themes in my material work.
Having lived overseas, my return to the UK after 30 years brings a renewed awareness of place. Local materials and textures carry stories, revealing time and re-formation through a felt tension between intention and surrender. I’m drawn to the shadows they cast.
About
Carie Oltmann
Artist and Graphic Designer | Valencia, Spain
“Beauty can help us confront things we don’t really want to think about, while art helps me to cope with the adversities of life. I aim to create beautiful pieces of art talking about things that move, frighten, or inspire me.”
Carie Oltmann is an artist and graphic designer based in Valencia, Spain, whose work moves with subtle force between beauty and discomfort, clarity and complexity. Her creative process is shaped by an ongoing reflection on how personal and collective experiences define our perception of the world.
Initially drawn to the topic of climate change, Carie’s inquiry expanded into a deeper exploration of the systems that shape reality—how memory, culture, and lived experience inform our values and decisions. This has led her to investigate the interplay between internal landscapes and external narratives, using her art to both question and illuminate.
She works across multiple media, including paper, textiles, photography, and ceramics—each chosen with care to serve the emotional and conceptual needs of the work. Her pieces are marked by thoughtful labor, repetition, and material experimentation, often revealing hidden layers of meaning beneath deceptively delicate surfaces.
As a Paper Lab’er, Carie has brought a distinctive voice to the lab—grounded, observant, and deeply engaged. Her contributions reflect a personal vocabulary of form and thought, developed through patient experimentation and a genuine commitment to the act of making. Each piece she creates is not only visually compelling, but also rich with the quiet rigor of emotional and intellectual inquiry.
30 days - Sleep Diary
Fragments of Memory
