Marina Zumi
Born in 1983 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Marina Zumi is a multi-interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin since 2018.
Marina enrolled in the Fashion Design curriculum at the University of Buenos Aires, and although did not complete the degree, she had already started working at an established fashion brand. At the age of 20, while working in fashion and designing her own accessories, she was introduced to the South American neo-muralism scenes on the street where artists would paint large-scale murals around the city, especially exploring the relationship between colour and form.
She started practicing in the streets with friends who she would paint with over the weekends, taking time out from work. However, the financial crisis of 2008 gravely affected South America, and the rising inflation led Marina to leave Argentina and start painting in the streets of Brazil. After her move, she began experimenting with techniques of spray painting and got acquainted with local artists with whom she went on to co-found an artistic house called ‘Colectivo 132’ which later transformed into the gallery A7MA.
Eager to study oceanography as a child, Marina’s fascination with nature and bioluminescence materialized in her visual practice portraying nocturnal environments within the noises of the city. While her murals were charged with colours, her works in the studio were layered with pigments of black. This dichotomy of painting light-ness in the streets and darkness in the studio resulted in her impressive interpretation of painting sunrises, sunsets and horizons.
Since 2011, Marina had been developing the series titled Flux of Energy as a study of dandelions made of geometric lines that would connect seven dots representing the space and time which tied her to her grandparents who lived across Argentina while she was growing up. She observed the dramatization of geometry and the kinetics of painting a line which urged her to use silver and golden metallic threads onto canvases produced with different textures, materials, densities, and formations of black.
With this allurement of highlighting luminosity through mediums, she started creating light-based installations in 2017 and in two years, conceptualized site-specific neon installations across multiple countries. Approaching light with an intention to evoke emotional sensibilities that are not technologically advanced, the light, for Marina, ultimately exudes a foresight for the future while reminiscing the past.
She remembers watching her grandmother embroider patches for her backpack. Her grandmother who used to sew clothes for dolls, after the birth of her children, gave it up to later weave tapestries of untold stories of her desires for the home. Marina taught herself how to sew and through that wove a relationship with her family who lived miles away. The process of sewing and eventually sewing with neon wires signified a union of care and endearment.
Following her textile experimentations at the studio, she progressed to a self-taught hand-embroidery technique where mathematical and sacred geometry would sink and flow through surfaces. She says, “Either with textile or neon threads, I want to sew the invisible entanglement in between entities, theories, feelings, atoms in the universe; merging in a single point for tapping into sub-cognitive connection.” Her current body of work displays an atmospheric radiance that has transgressed the early darker toned works. The amorous colour waves of the skies and cosmos are pierced with hand-embroidered objects and settings that, many a times, are in a moment of suspension, ascension, dissension, and also disintegration.
Marina’s colour spectacles are painted as murals around the world and have now become a tangible reality as the artist continues to explore analog and digital media with new technologies. She continues to work on independent and collaborative projects on the streets and in galleries generating immersive light installations and other mixed media artworks.
Marina has painted walls in more than 35 countries and 4 continents, taking her from Argentina to Russia, the United States of America, China, Kazakhstan to many other countries. Her notable solo exhibitions are “Techno Poetry” held at Urban Spree, Berlin, Germany, in 2019 and “That Place,” Juxtapoz, held at the Mana Contemporary, Miami, USA in 2018. Some of her recent projects and group exhibitions where her works have been showcased include “Sun Rise – Sun Set,” Tahiti, French Polynesia, 2023; 0010 Exhibitions, “Vapor Wave,” Berlin, Germany, 2022; Swab Art Fair, MM Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, 2020; and “Imago,” MUCA Museum, Munic, Germany in 2018. After five years, the artist has returned to producing solo exhibitions starting with “Lil Pocket - Tiny Waist” hosted at the AS-EM Space in Leipzig, Germany and “SEW DENTS ON EVERY SKYLINE” at Gallery XXL, Mumbai, India.
Her works have been acquired by the Urban Nation Museum, The Pirelli Collection, The Montana State University, and The Argentina Metro Public Collection, and are spread across many private collections around Argentina, the United States of America, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, England, Kazakhstan, Belgium, China and Uruguay. Furthermore, her work has been published in various publications such as Juxtapoz Mag, USA, Arte IT, Cosmopolitan Spain and Rolling Stone Magazine BR.