Marnie Weber (born 1959) is an American artist who lives and works in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Her work includes photography, sculpture, installations, film, video, and performances. She is also a musician.

Life and work

Marnie Weber was born in

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and spent part of her childhood moving around Asia with her family. She studied at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, CA, and received her B.A. from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. She has had solo shows, video screenings, and performances throughout the United States and Europe. Much of Weber's visual art revolves around a recurring cast of characters. An animal often found in her work is the bear, which is linked to the Greek goddess

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

. These characters, among others, are placed in "vividly colorful environment , ornate,

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

interiors or dark, dense, eerie landscapes. Her work most often focuses on the adventures of women, which sometimes take the form of half-human, half-animal hybrids with bodies cut from

pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

magazines, and other times, pale-faced, folksy ghosts known as "Spirit Girls". Marnie Weber's work is featured on the cover of the 1998 Sonic Youth album '' A Thousand Leaves.'' The Spirit Girls was the name of Marnie Weber's six member drone-rock musical group. The Spirit Girls is also the name of Weber's multimedia conceptual project which used film, sculpture, collage, installation and performance to explore the after-life of the all-female rock band featured in four Weber films: Songs that Never Die (2005), A Western Song (2007), The Sea of Silence (2009) and Eternity Forever (2010). In the films, the Spirit Girls "are the specters of five adolescents, killed in their prime, who come back to the real world to 'express things they weren't able to express' while they were alive." The spectral Spirit Girls are said to have died tragically in the male-dominated music scene of the 1970s. The opening of the final film in the series, Eternity Forever, was held at the Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena, CA, built with a gallery for temporary art exhibits. The opening also featured the living Spirit Girls, who played their final concert to 500 equally alive attendees. Weber has also performed and recorded with The Party Boys (US-band) and The Perfect Me. She has two solo albums, ''Woman with Bass'', 1994 and ''Cry for Happy'', 1996, both recorded as "Marnie". In 2004, a compilation of her work was released entitled ''Songs Forgotten: The Best of Marnie 1987 - 2004''. In 2016 Weber released a feature-length film, ''The Day of Forevermore'', which she wrote and directed and features her artwork. She is married to the Los Angeles-based artist Jim Shaw. Her work has been associated with

New Gothic Art New Gothic or Neo-Gothic is a contemporary art movement that emphasizes darkness and horror. Manifesto "The Art Manifesto" was written by Gothic subculture artist Charles Moffat in 2001, who also coined the term in an effort to differentiate ...

Collections

* Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, US *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

, Los Angeles, CA, US * Neuberger Berman Inc., New York, NY, US * Progressive Corporation, Mayfield, OH, US * Fond National d'Art Contemporain (FNAC), FR * MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland * Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Notes and references

External links

Official WebsiteMarnie Weber at Marc Jancou Contemporary, New YorkMarnie Weber bio, selected works and exhibitions
at praz-delavallade.com
Marnie Weber at Kunstaspekte

Simon Lee Gallery, London.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Marnie 1959 births Living people Artists from Los Angeles American women artists Artists from Bridgeport, Connecticut University of Southern California alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century American women

Life and work

Collections

Notes and references

Further reading

External links