MARIKO MORI | Entities no. 2

Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly, New York

Mariko Mori is a Japanese contemporary artist best known for her sculptures, videos, photographs, installations, digital imagery and performance pieces often involving surreal imagery. She studied at the Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, then went on to study at the Chelsea College of Arts in London, and finally attended the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program in New York. In her early photographs, Mori appears as the cyborg heroine of a film who navigates Tokyo. However, in her more recent pieces, she departs from the hybridized self and begins to undertake more spiritual incarnations.

Mori explores the intersection of life, death, reality and technology. The commingling of traditional deities and futuristic aliens, along with the presence of the artist herself - dressed up in self-made costumes - highlight the concepts of technology and spirituality in her work.

Mori’s art is found in collections worldwide, including the Le Magasin- Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Japan Society, in New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Serpentine Gallery; The Museum of Modern Art; among others. Her work has also been featured twice at the Venice Biennale, in 1997 and 2003; Istanbul Biennial in 1997; Sydney Biennale in 2000; Shanghai Biennale in 2000; São Paulo Art Biennial in 2002; and Singapore Biennale in 2006. Mori’s influence in the art world has been recognized through various awards, including the prestigious Menzione d’onore at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the 8th Annual Award as a promising Artist and Scholar in the Field of Contemporary Japanese Art from the Japan Cultural Arts Foundation in 2001.

Mariko Mori currently lives and works in New York.