Marianne Magne

As a visual artist and experimental filmmaker, I use drawing, sculpture, collage, video and digital manipulation to build audio-visual constructs. Inspired by biological mechanisms, my work articulates itself and flows through multiple media. Analog and digital processes intertwine to create fantastical microcosms and proto-organisms. I'm interested in the concept of life as an evolutionary process, from its origin to its hypothetical future. Using the human body as a starting point for multi-disciplinary experiments, my process mimics speciation in natural selection: several new bodies of work branch off from one common ancestor to eventually give rise to their own distinct line.

The series “Palimpsests” focuses on the deconstruction and reconstruction of the human body. Photographies of (friends and self) are altered using different processes [burning, scratching, drawing, collages]. The collages are then photographed and printed. They translate the constant shifts of the matter, the impermanent and transitory nature of the human body.
These images provide the starting point for my digital work. Through further manipulations they merge into organic abstractions, a combination of biological elements and cosmic phenomena. Thi...

Born in Paris
studied at Institut St Charles, Paris-La Sorbonne
live and work in Los Angeles,


- Durfee Arc Grant, 2004
- Patron Award, “Work on Paper XXIX” at Brand Gallery, CA, 2000.
- 1st Place, “Image Conscious” Mesa Art Center, AZ , 1996.
- Jury Award, “The Art of Photography” at The Armory Art Centre, FL, 1995.

Solo Exhibitions:
2010,RAM Random Access Memory, Brand Art Gallery, Glendale, CA
2005, Spotlight on local filmmaker, Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA.
2003, Numériques, Aaddo Galerie, Paris, France.
2002, Cosmic Phenomena and Related Species, 7 Degrees Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA.
2000, Unsex Me Here, Crazy Space, 18st Art Complex, Santa Monica [installation and performance in collaboration with Ann Perich and Hannah Sim].
1999, The Body Palimpsest, Brand Art Gallery, Glendale CA.
1998,The Alchemy of the Flesh, Half a Dozen Rose Gallery, Venice CA.