Angela Glajcar is a sculptor who primarily works with paper and glass fiber, using light and space to bring form to her structures. She studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nuremberg from 1991 to 1998 and has received numerous awards and fellowships. She began her career working with wood and steel before moving on to paper, which she appreciates for its versatility as a medium.
Angela Glajcar transforms large sheets of paper into layered sculptures that she often suspends from the ceiling to engage with light, air, and perspective. These are born from her signature technique that she calls "terforation," a portmanteau of "terra" and "perforation. Her series "Terforation'' (2005-present) consists of site-specific installations of paper sheets with hand-torn sections, each one presenting a cavernous void that evokes natural landforms. Pieces from this series have been exhibited in museums like the National Museum of Women in the Arts and MOCA Jacksonville, where Glajcar presented a monumental piece with 150 sheets of paper. In 2023, Austrian museum Landesgalerie Niederösterreich featured a solo exhibition of her work, titled 'Dream Catcher', taking place in their lower level gallery. Her works emphasize the materiality of paper while creating moments of drama that reveal themselves depending on one's viewing angle. Glajar has received several awards for her innovative manipulation of paper, including the 2014/2015 Mainzer Stadtdrucker Prize and the 2021 Paper Art Award presented by Haus des Papiers Berlin.
In an interview with NMWA, Glajcar described the appeal of paper: "I was amazed by the spatial appearance of paper, as it is a two-dimensional flat material. I was really surprised by that, and so I gave it a chance. Whereas it is a light material, I was thrilled by the monumental and heavy effect that I was able to create. The material started to do the opposite of what I was expecting. We all think that paper is light and fragile, not spatial, and not monumental. [This experience] completely changed my way of working as an artist."