BIOGRAPHY
Marjorie Van Cura was born in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in central Massachusetts. Her mother, a former portrait artist, was her first art teacher. Her father is a computer programmer with a diagnostics laboratory for neurological disorders. Marjorie has a BFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. She has had additional studies at the Worcester Art Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Marjorie Van Cura perceives her work as social commentary, informed by several themes of interest that include the origin and genetic make-up of species, the phenomenon of evolution, and issues of identity, alienation, and community in our Digital Age. Her mixed-media paintings combine graphic, Op-art aesthetics with invented hybrid creatures, or Chimeras, that contain human-animal-mechanical parts. She creates these Chimera figures by collaging together digital photographs of various components culled from the internet. She then draws a final version of the hybrid to use as a foundation for each of her paintings. Images are created when she places and transfers the drawing by hand several times within each composition. Optical color relationships and repetitions of shape and line dissolve into a complex pattern and create a visually intense, visceral experience.
Marjorie Van Cura has instructed students in drawing and painting courses at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Boston Architectural Center, Abington Art Center and the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a guest critic for art classes at New York Academy of Art, Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute and Catholic University.Marjorie Van Cura currently resides in New York and maintains a studio in Greenpoint Brooklyn. Images are online at www.marjorievancura.com.
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