Artist Spotlight: Alma Haser

Alma Haser, Patient No 5 from the “Cosmic Surgery” series. Courtesy of De Soto Gallery.

Imagine a world in which plastic surgery would allow you to scramble your facial features, protecting you from surveillance technology. That’s the conceit behind Alma Haser’s “Cosmic Surgery,” a sci-fi-tinged series in which the artist photographs her subjects, then folds their faces into intricate origami designs.

Those distorted images are then placed on top of the original photograph—a kind of Cubism for the modern age. “They’re quite elaborate,” gallery owner Shelley De Soto says of the folded paper forms.