Mary Corey March
About the Artist Blog Home

 

photo courtesy of Katja Leibenath

Mary Corey March

b. Los Angeles, 1977.

After living all over the US and outside of it, Mary now lives and works in San Francisco.

 


Artist's Statement

I walk a tightrope between defined states in all of my work.  My work exists in spaces between "art" and "craft", "high tech" and "low tech", so-called "women's work" and "men's work".  Sometimes the expression of that liminality is in the concept.  In the case of my interactive pieces, the participant enters liminal space during their interaction.  They hover between definitions, making choices within a system which express something of their identity and experiences.  The results can be something like data visualizations.


Though I work in many mediums, fiber is increasingly dominant in my work.  Individual fibers become lines for drawing and ways to create connections between objects or ideas, to literally tie things together.  Different fiber techniques express concepts by their nature and history, like the way stitching expresses a technique for holding both fabric and the damaged body together, or how embroidery was used for centuries to record histories both national and personal.  Among the fiber techniques, weaving is the most compelling to me.  It is one of the earliest marks of civilization and at the same time the basis for computing (Jacquard looms were arguably the first computers).  This makes weaving an ideal  medium for exploring the intersection of high tech and craft. 


Process has always been important to me and I usually make it notable in the work if not visible in real time.  The labor of the handmade, the texture and layers, the improvisations and fumbles are all important expressions of humanity to me, especially in the face of the digital world.  Since coming to the Bay Area my work increasingly explores the intersection and exchange between the digital and the human, how binary data and computer interaction mediate and reframe human experience and self image.


The root of my work is exploring both the individual person and humanity through identity, relationships, diversity, and commonality.  How do we define ourselves and each other?  How to we frame our experiences?  How much of our humanity can come through in a data format?  Through our symbolic images?  Our words?  Our definitions?  Our bodies? These are the questions I delve into again and again.

From the Studio

(artist's Blog)

CV

Education

MFA student at San Francisco Art Instititute, San Francisco, CA. Expected matriculation Spring 2014.

MA in Integrated Arts Education, May 2004, Plymouth State College, Plymouth, NH.

Diploma in Fine Arts, Dec 2002 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA.

BA in History of Religions, May 1999 Earlham College, Richmond IN.

Diploma, Harvard-Westlake, LA, Ca. May, 1995.
best possible score in all AP courses: Art History, Studio Art, and English Language. National Merit Finalist.

 

Exhibitions

Upcoming:

May 11th-June 14th Wide Open4 at BWAC, Brooklyn, NY. (Juror Carrie Springer, Senior Curatorial Assistant at the Whitney Museum).

 

Past:

4-5/2013 Interwoven Connections- Contemporary Fiber, Diego Rivera Gallery, SFAI, San Francisco, CA
2/21-24/2013 Wisdom 2.0 Conference, San Francisco, CA. Installation of Identity Tapestry.
1/25/2013 Reel Stories Film Festival, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.  Installation of Identity Tapestry.
11/2012 Art by Telephone, Recalled, Swell Gallery, SFAI, SF. Curators : Sébastien Pluot & Fabien Vallos. Part of a collaborative project taking place at SFAI in San Francisco, the Emily Harvey Foundation in New York, the CNEAI, Chatou (France) and CAPC Boudeux (France)
8-9/2012 TEXT MESSAGE: the alchemy of text-based art, Bleicher Gallery (La Brea location), Los Angeles, CA. Curator Joella March (no relation).
2-3/2012 Momentum (WCA 40th anniversary show, juror Rita Gonzalez Associate Curator at LACMA), Los Angeles Art Association, Los Angeles, CA. (catalog)
2/2012 MFA now, Root Division, San Francisco, CA. (catalog)
12/2011 Snap to Grid, LACDA, Los Angeles, CA
10/2011 You First, Orange County Contemporary Center for the Arts, Santa Ana, CA.
5-6/2011 Play, Textile Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY.
6/ 2011 Harmony for Peace Foundation's Peace Fine Art Competition, Chelsea Art Museum, NYC, NY.
3-4/ 2011 "Interwoven: Icons and Ideas" as part of the Transcultural Exchange show, Hamden Gallery, UMass Amherst, MA.
4/2011 Here there and Everywhere, Transcultural Exchange Center, Boston, MA.
3/2011 Wide Open2, (juror, Nathan Trotman, curator at the NYC Guggenheim) BWAC, Brooklyn, NY. *received Best Installation award*
10/ 2009 Scales, Treasure Island Music Festival, San Francisco, CA.
4/ 2009 New Work, Semi-Solo show at the Rathbone Gallery, Sage Colleges, NY. *included a collaborative piece I organized and participated in*
4/2009 Exquisite Corps, International Collaborative Piece shown by Constantin Severin at the Biblioteca Bucovine Suceava, Romania
4/2009 Here, There and Everywhere: Anticipating the Future of Art, The Transcultural Exchange Center's exhibition/conference, Boston, MA.
9/2008 Identity Tapestry, TI Music Festival
4/26/2008 Alchemy an installation of "Identity Tapestry", Cellspace, San Francisco, CA.
10-11/2007 Shaman, Gallery One, San Francisco, CA.
7-8/2007 Works on Paper Gallery One, San Francisco, CA.
12/2/2005 The Postcard Show, The Lab, San Francisco, CA.
9/2003 Huis op de bodem van de zee AKI University, Enschede, theNetherlands.
11/2002 Iconoclasm Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
2000 Ceramic Sculpture Show School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

 

Awards

Sustainable Arts Foundation Award (7/2011)

Best Installation, BWAC Wide Open2 show. Awarded by Nat Trotman, curator at the NYC Guggenheim. (3/2011)

Honorable Mention, London International Creative Competition. (2010)

 

Press

Romanian Media including Adevarul, News Bucovina (1) , News Bucovina (2), Evenimentul (April 2009)

Interview and cover of Mission Arts Monthly(3/05) link to interview(text version), link to pdf version

 

Online Press

Against the Grain "Identity Tapestry", Posted by Koop, 10/1/ 2008. Link: http://againsthegrainblog.com/?p=93   

Op2 Collective, Spotlight Emerging Artist: Mary March, Posted by Lauren Smith on 5/11/2012

http://2opcollective.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/spotlight-emerging-artist-mary-march/

 

 

Collaborative Projects Organized


Interwoven: Icons and Ideas (2011).  A collaborative art project between five women artists from five different countries and one anthropologist. Done through the juried project "Here there and Everywhere: anticipating the future of art", created by Transcultural Exchange Center, Boston. http://marymarch.com/icon.html

Exquisite Corps (2009). An online art collaboration between twenty-one artists from almost as many countries, two translators and one computer programmer.  Done by invitation of the juried project "Here there and Everywhere: anticipating the future of art", created by Transcultural Exchange Center, Boston. http://www.exquisite-corps.com/

 

Art Affiliations

Member of the Swell Gallery (the graduate gallery) committee at SFAI.

Member of The Drawing Center's Viewing Program (since 9/04/07), The Drawing Center, New York, NY.

Member of the Women's Caucus for Art (since 2010).

Resident Artist at Gallery One (2007-2008)- Gallery One, San Francisco, CA.

Member of Rhizome

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