Enzina Marrari is a conceptual visual and performance artist whose invisible disability informs much of her work. She is driven by confronting the hard stuff. She creates visual stories to reveal the unspoken, the shameful, the forgotten, and the unseen. Her work often challenges and questions the notions of home, place, self, and community and draws inspiration from the environmental landscape, personal and communal stories, and interpersonal vulnerabilities. She thrives in transforming stories into landscapes, audio narratives, physical experiences, or body works. Her medium is concept-driven and manifests as performance, wearable art, installation, mixed media, and poetry. Enzina has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage and has taught classes and workshops to students of all ages and levels.
Enzina Marrari is a 2017 Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellow, a 2018 recipient of the Alaska Journal of Commerce’s Top 40 under 40, and a 2015 Connie Boochever Fellow. She has been supported by the Awesome Foundation, Alaska State Council on the Arts, Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation, and Radical Arts for Women. In 2015, she was nominated for an emerging artist award through the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She has been an artist in residence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Cill Rialaig Artist Center in Ballinskelligs, Ireland. She is an Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and was a founding partner at @ Studio C in Anchorage. She received a B.A. in Studio Art (focus: sculpture and figure drawing) from the University of Alaska Anchorage and an M.A. in Studio Art (focus: installation and performance) from New York University. She currently lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska.
Press, Collections, and Published Works
Press
Innovative Expressions Toward Relationships: Enzina Marrari Prepares To Unveil ‘of relation: a progressive performance, Robert Foran III, Anchorage Press, Nov. 1, 2018
Mime project brings playful spirit to construction season in Spenard, Anchorage Daily News, Tamara Ikenberg, July 14, 2017,
Mimes tour Spenard, Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hallinen, July 29, 2017
The Mimes of Spenard, The Anchorage Press, O’Hara Shipe, August 9, 2017,
I make wearable art, Indie Alaska Artist Documentary by Alaska Public Media and PBS. January 26, 2014
Enzina Marrari, Artist Profile, Alaska Public Media. March 26, 2013
Tell tale heart, The Press, by Ash Adams, June 6th, 2013
Art Seen: Art every wear, The Redoubt Reporter, By Natasha Ala, March 27th, 2013
MTS Gallery goes out with a party, The Anchorage Daily News by Marc Lester, May 22, 2011
Exuent, The Anchorage Press, by Dawnell Smith, May 18, 2011
Let’s talk about text - Linguistics interpreted via art, The Anchorage Press, by Dawnell Smith, February 25, 2011
Object Runway: If it’s not trash it can be Worn, Fzine, by Wisdom and Teeka A. Ballas, February 2011, Volume 3, Issue 1
Zany, beautiful, uncomfortable fashions highlight, The Anchorage Daily News, event by Mike Dunham, January 31, 2011
Coffee Friendly Art, The Anchorage Press, by Dawnell Smith, August 18, 2010
Hair Cut, The Anchorage Press, by Dawnell Smith, July 21, 2010
Tress Pass Enzina Marrari First Friday Performance, MTS Gallery Blog, June 2010
Celebration of Self, The Anchorage Daily News, by Mike Dunham, November 7, 2010
The many shades of self, The Anchorage Press, by Dawnell Smith, November 5-11, 2009
Artist Profile: Enzina Marrari "Art Impermanent", Fzine, by Teeka A. Ballas, May 2009,
Collections & Catalogues
Mas de diez/ More than ten. Candiani, Alicia. Proyecto ACE. ISSUU. 2018, https://issuu.com/proyectoace/docs/mas_de_diez
Creative Alaska: A Ten-Year Retrospective of Support for Alaska Artists, 2004-2013, by Sven Haakanson (Editor), Amy Steffian (Editor), University of Alaska Press, 2016
Self Portraits / Autorretratos. Digital Book and Catalogue. Directed by Alicia Candiani, 2015
Published works/essays
Mimes and Road Construction: An Unlikely Partnership for Community Investment, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Community Development Innovation Review, Transforming Community Development through Arts and Culture - Volume 14, Issue 2, November, 2019
love, revelation, risk – a collection of iPhone notes, poetry collection, self-published handbound artist book, Melancholy Press, 2019
Understory, Literary Journal, University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Creative Writing and Literary Arts. 2004
Inklings, Literary Magazine, University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Creative Writing and Literary Arts. 2001
Inklings, Literary Magazine, University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Creative Writing and Literary Arts. 2000
“The idea becomes a machine that makes the Art”
Select Resume
Enzina Marrari b. Chicago, Illinois
Education Master of Arts; Studio Arts, Performance and Installation, New York University. New York, New York 2007 NYU Artist Merit Scholarship
Bachelor of Arts; Studio Art, Sculpture and Life Drawing Emphasis, Cum Laude, University of Alaska Anchorage. Anchorage, Alaska 2005 Ken Gray Endowment Scholarship
Awards and Honors 2021 Grant award, of hope project grant, Cook Inlet Housing Authority, Anchorage, Alaska 2021 Grant award, Anchorage Community Artist Project, Anchorage Concert Association, Anchorage, Alaska 2018 40 under 40 Award, Alaska Chamber of Commerce, Anchorage, Alaska 2018 Grant award, Awesome Foundation, Alaska Chapter 2017 Fellowship: Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, Anchorage, Alaska 2017 Residency Award: Cill Rialaig Artist Residency Center, Kerry, Ireland 2015 Nominee: Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2015 Fellowship: Connie Boochever Fellowship, Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation, Anchorage, Alaska
Select Exhibits
Solo 2021 of hope, The Nave, Anchorage, Ak 2019 of relation, The Shop, Homer, Ak 2018 of relation, 4th Ave Marketplace, Anchorage, Ak 2018 the self – a pop-up performance, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Ak 2018 Bounded Text, Arc Gallery, Arc Gallery, Anchorage, Ak 2017 MimeSpenard, Spenard Neighborhood, Cook Inlet Housing Authority, Anchorage, Ak 2016 Point in motion, Sevigny Studio, Anchorage, Ak 2016 Center/Letters to my Mother, Anchorage Community Works, Anchorage, Ak 2016 Camouflage, In Plain Sight Event; Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, Ak
Group 2022 Faculty Exhibition, Kimura Gallery, Anchorage Ak 2022 Members Show, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Ak 2021 Great Big Heart Exhibit, Middle Way Gallery, Anchorage Ak 2020 Extra Tough, Women of the North: Affirmations, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Ak 2020 PRESENCE, Kimura Gallery, Anchorage, Ak 2019 Museum Gala, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Ak 2019 100x100, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Ak 2019 Drawn North, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, Ak 2019 SPACE, Tomkins County Library, Ithaca, New York