Marjorie Mikasen
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Marjorie Mikasen
Artist Statement
I am an abstract painter. The imagery and concepts of science, mainly chemistry and biochemistry, influence me. The human body has a continual presence in my work, appearing as a cluster of geometric shapes. Other geometric forms evoke pattern, matrix and environment. Our shared biology has a deep connection to geometric form. It presents us with both clues to follow and mysteries to ponder about our human experience.
The images for my acrylic paintings come about through a combination of traditional sketching and computer modeling. I transfer the final design to canvas and hand-finish the paintings using an exacting hard edge taping technique.
Bio
Born in Chicago, Marjorie Mikasen spent her formative years in Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, receiving a B. A. in Studio Arts (1981). A full time artist since 1986, she worked in Denver, Colorado, before relocating to Lincoln in 1990. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows in Nebraska and in over 100 group shows in 21 states, the UK, Canada and Hungary.
In 1997, Mikasen was president of the Nebraska Women’s Caucus for Art, a branch of the national WCA. She received a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Award (2007). "Swimming in Nebraska" (2010) a film by Jon Jost, documents Mikasen painting in her studio and has been shown internationally. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Sheldon Museum of Art and was featured in “The Geometric Unconscious: A Century of Abstraction” (2012) and in the accompanying book. She received the Lincoln Mayor’s Arts Award for Artistic Achievement in the Visual Arts (2013). Mikasen’s work was featured in Joslyn Art Museum’s “Art Seen: A Juried Exhibition of Artists from Omaha to Lincoln” (2015). Her work is also in the University of Nebraska Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Medical Center public collections, as well as many private collections.
Mikasen coauthored "ReAction! Chemistry in the Movies" (Oxford University Press 2009) with her husband Mark Griep, a chemistry professor at UNL. An Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant award in the area of Public Understanding of Science provided funding to research the book. Her painting "Jekyll & Hyde" is featured in the book. “Video Profiles of Nebraska Artists” (2016), the Nebraska Fine Arts Educational Standards website features Mikasen in 17 segments.
Visit the artist's web site: MarjorieMikasen.com
Lincoln
Nebraska