Illustration by Maria Manhattan
1967-present
Mariko Mori was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1967. Born into one of the world’s wealthiest families, she worked as a fashion model during the late 1980s. Mariko studied fashion design at Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, attended the Chelsea College of Art in London, and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in New York. Her work reflects the combination of influences from Eastern and Western cultures. An avant-garde artist who is sometimes compared to Cindy Sherman, she films herself made up as various fantasy people, in fantasy environments. Mori’s work combines pop art, self portraits, costumes, futuristic and spiritual themes, digital image editing, and 3-D video.
