Marisa J. Futernick
Marisa J. Futernick is an artist and writer whose work explores “Americanness” and the promise of the American Dream, intertwining the personal with the historical and fact with fiction. Through the combination of text and image, she uncovers the less visible social and political histories of the United States and its complex mythologies. With a strong drive to tell stories (be they historical or invented—usually a mix of both) that address issues of social and economic disparities, she has made work about swimming pools, front lawns, the Hollywood Sign, the Watergate building, Detroit home ownership, the corn industry, the 10 missing floors in Trump Tower, the hometowns of presidents, failed political candidates, and a surreal search for the cheapest gas in Los Angeles. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, she uses a variety of media including photography, film/video, installation, writing and artist’s books, radio, and painting. Futernick often uses her own voice or physical body to subvert gender stereotypes, and her invented narratives weave together rigorous research, humor, and the poetry of the everyday in an effort to understand and humanize history.
Futernick’s work has been presented at venues including the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London; ICA, London; The British Library, London; Jerwood Space, London; Rice + Toye, London; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; Oxy Arts, Occidental College, Los Angeles; The Art Gallery at Glendale Community College, Los Angeles; Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles; Ladies’ Room, Los Angeles; Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, California; Harvard University; and Yale University. She is a recipient of the prestigious Deutsche Bank Award and holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from the Royal Academy Schools, London, with additional studies at Goldsmiths College, London. Her book 13 Presidents (Slimvolume, 2016) was shortlisted for the Bar Tur Photobook Award from The Photographers’ Gallery, London. Other publications by the artist include How I Taught Umberto Eco to Love the Bomb (RA Editions and California Fever Press, 2015), The Watergate Complex (Rice + Toye, 2015), and Bring a Folding Chair (The Art Gallery at Glendale Community College and California Fever Press, 2022). Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times; LA Weekly; Die Tageszeitung (taz); Art Papers; and Refract, the visual studies journal of the University of California Santa Cruz. Futernick’s radio series 13 Presidents, based on her book of the same name, recently aired on 96.7 KGAP Los Angeles as part of the Materials & Applications Architecture Radio season. She is a core member of the activist group Artists 4 Democracy. A major new work by the artist features in the forthcoming group exhibition Modern Desert Markings: An Homage to Las Vegas Area Land Art, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, March 14–July 8, 2023.
Futernick was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. After many years in London, she now lives and works in Los Angeles, California.