Marie Mennes

Marie Mennes was born in Miami Beach and lives and works in Miami Shores, Florida.  Mennes received a BFA from Barry University and MS from Florida International University.  A mixed media artist, her work, overall, represents an intuitive, intimate and intensely personal dialogue with simple, carefully selected remains of human experience–hair, photographs, bed linens, glass, text–to create two- and three-dimensional works. She believes that “through the reduction of extraneous information, a moment arrives when matter transcends into poetry and truth is revealed. The exquisite union of these materials embodies an inner force of life that surpasses mere narrative and enters into the world of being–an essence suspended deep within every form–invisible and indestructible.”

Selected solo exhibitions include Portals, Piedmont Virginia Community College, Charlottesville, Virginia;  Marie Mennes: In and Out of Context, The Art Gallery at Government Center, Miami, Florida;  and Marie Mennes: The Contemplative Object, Broyles Arts Center, The Westminster Schools, Atlanta, Georgia. Selected group exhibitions include La Sirena: A Call for Transformation, mia Gallery, Miami International Airport, Florida;  Back to the Garden: Ray Azcuy & Marie Mennes, Oolite Arts, Miami Beach, Florida;  Thirteen_08, NSU Art Museum, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Common Threads: Marie Mennes and Karen Rifas, mia Gallery, Miami International Airport, Florida; Sarasota Biennial 2000, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; and Eight From Miami, Bianca Lanza Gallery, Miami Beach, Florida. Mennes was a recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists. Her work is in the collections of Edward Albee, Ruth and Richard Shack, and Valencia College.