Mariko Ventura
Sculptor and performance artist, born in Kyoto, Japan, now residing in Chicago.
Mariko works primarily as a ceramic sculptor, and the performance aspects of her
work are extensions of the clay in all of its metamorphosing states. In
performance and other media she explores the changes and movement of the
unpredictable clay. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries, and she
is represented in galleries throughout the Midwest as well as in Japan.
Recent professional work:
- Exhibitions:
- 1995 50 Years, Human Re-Visions/The Nuclear Neighborhood. Video installation. Peace Museum, Chicago.
- 1995 Sculpture Invitational. Villa Terrace Museum, Milwaukee.
- 1994 Podoerotomania: 1000 years of the Lotus, Installation and Performance (mixed media, clay, cloth, paper), N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago
- 1994 Kami: Hair, Paper, God/dess, Performance-exhibition, Suburban Fine Arts Center, Highland Park, Illinois
- 1993 My Story Began Before I Was Born, Installation and Performance (clay, fabric, ink), Block Gallery, Northwestern University
- 1993 Fluidity and Form, Invitational Exhibition, Rock Valley Community College
- 1992 Poetic Form: New Ideas in Clay, Suburban Fine Arts Center, Exhibition Coordinator
- 1992 Farrell Collection, Wahington, D.C.
- Performances:
- 1995 OH-AH The Moon. Butoh Dance at Hedwig Dances, Chicago Cultural Center
- 1995 Closed Spaces. Urban art performance, Eisenhattenstadt
- 1995 Hiroshima Memorial performance. Guild Complex Chicago.
- 1995 Drag Kings, with Diane Torr. Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago.
- 1995 Thaw Dance, Ceres Gallery, Whitewalls Performance Group, New York City
- 1995 Glass Layers Series, Links Hall, Chicago
- 1994 Family Legends, curated by Audrey Colby, Cafe Voltaire, Chicago
- 1994 Summer Rain, Butoh dance piece, choreography by Kaja Overstreet, Chicago Cultural Center
- 1993 Matsya, an East Indian dance piece, directed and choreographed by Avanthi Meduri, Louis Theatre, Northwestern University
- 1992 A Community of Artists: Mariko Ventura Flood, feature on U.S. Cable of Lake County, Channel 3, 30-minute interview with performance video
- Workshop Presentations:
- 1994 Border Performance: The Politics of Production, panel participant at annual convention of the Society for Photographic Education
- 1994 Performance Art Workshop, including public performance, as guest artist at University of Wisconsin/Whitewater
- 1994 International Writer's Festival, China and Japan Guest Lecturer on pottery and performance art, College of Lake County, Grayslake, Illinois
- Collections:
- 1993 Northwest Cultural Council, Friendship Village Corp., sculpture purchase
- 1990 Governor Thompson purchase for presentation to Governor Kuneko of Niigata prefecture, Japan
- Other professional Work:
- 1995 Artistic Cooordinator, Cuneo Museum, Vernon Hills, Illinois
- 1995 Artistic Consultant, Goethe Institut. Stadtkultur-SisterCities Program Chicago/Hamburg
- 1995 Time Arts Committee, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago
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