Mika Rottenberg

New York-based artist Mika Rottenberg (b. 1976, Buenos Aires) is devoted to a rigorous practice that combines film, architectural installation, and sculpture to explore ideas of labor and the production of value in our contemporary hyper-capitalist world. Drawing from cinematic and sculptural traditions, she seeks out locations around the world — a pearl factory in China, a Calexico border town — where specific systems of production and commerce are in place. Through the editing process, and with footage from sets built in her studio, Rottenberg connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate and subversive visual narratives. By weaving fact and fiction, she highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence. Each of Rottenberg's video works is situated within a theatrical installation made up of objects from the lush and bizarre parallel worlds in her videos. Sacks of pearls, deflated pool toys, plastic flowers, and sizzling frying pans seem to open a portal into the realm of the work. Her multidimensional film projects are often accompanied by standalone sculptural works connected by allegory.

Born in Argentina, Rottenberg spent her formative years in Israel, then moved to the U.S. where she earned her B.A. from the School of Visual Arts in New York and an M.F.A. from Columbia University in 2004. A solo exhibition of Rottenberg's work is currently on view at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. Her work has also been presented at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, in Humlebæk, Denmark, and in the solo exhibition Easypieces at the New Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. Rottenberg was the recipient of the 2019 Kurt Schwitters Prize, which recognizes artists who have made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art. In 2018, she was awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum's James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize, which recognizes an artist younger than 50 who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity.