Marika Christofides is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Oklahoma State University. As a printmaker and visual artist, she explores the biosciences through a feminist lens. She collects illustrations from feminine-coded mid century print ephemera -- such as sewing packets, greeting cards, and recipe books -- which she translates into digital collage and print-based works.
She earned her M.F.A in Studio Art from the University of Kentucky School of Art and Visual Studies in 2022, and holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Carleton College. Her work has recently been exhibited at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, the Morgan Conservatory, and Lawrence Art Center, and she has attended residencies at Emmanuel College in Boston, MA and In Cahoots in Petaluma, CA.
"My work depicts a feminist bio scientific imaginary. I use the lives and behaviors of non-human organisms like fungi and parasites as a jumping off point to invent creatures whose abstracted bodies and biological processes allow me to explore ideas of identity, embodiment, and reproductive labor through a feminist lens. The genesis point of my work is a reverence for and desire to elevate mid century feminine-coded print ephemera: greeting cards, sewing packets, and recipe books - which I use to create digital collages. These materials are reminiscent of the domestic spaces to which they belong and often carry an aura of use in the form of handwritten notes or dog-eared pages. Through a process of repetitive mirroring, images of objects like flowers and aprons acquire an otherworldly quality and become removed from their original context. My prints, installations and artist books are characterized by a graphic sense of color, pattern, and design. I draw inspiration from the aesthetics of biological life under a microscope, using bilateral symmetry and self-similarity in my compositions. Digital processes allow me to mimic the algorithmic tendencies of nature-as-designer, while printmaking allows me to create multiples with slight, often accidental variations -- the same way that a morphology is expressed differently across members of a species. By situating my works within installation environments, I extend the act of collage to the gallery wall. In this way, I emphasize the materiality of the prints, referencing the body and building a world around them that suggests ideas of parasitism, symbiosis and mutation."
Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.
I grew up in Seattle, Washington where my parents owned an architecture firm. As a child, I spent a lot of time hanging out at their office constructing things from scraps of paper and foam. I was also a prolific drawer; I could always be occupied with markers and paper during long trips or family dinners.
I abandoned art for a while to study Philosophy and English in college and following that was in a different career for six years, until I realized that I wanted to be an artist!
What kind of work are you currently making?
I am currently making print-based relief collages. I’m mining my own archive: making new prints using old transparencies, revisiting imagery, and cutting into old editions and failed prints. The resulting series, which I am calling “Little Sisters” explores genetics, family, and girlhood.
What is a day like in the studio for you?
My studio practice has an eb and flow, and exists across multiple spaces. Some days I’m in the printmaking studio, other days I spend troubleshooting illustrator files or wrestling with settings and materials for the laser cutter. My photoshop and collage work - which is the most generative - happens in my home studio at night.
What are you looking at right now and/or reading?
I’m currently reading “Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art” by Lauren Elkin and looking at Carrie Schneider.
Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)
Website: https://www.marikachristofides.com/
Upcoming Solo exhibition at Berea College’s Doris Ullman Gallery in Berea, Kentucky (October 2024).
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