Early explorations into memory as physical matter. Wire, paper, and handmade forms become vessels for what cannot be spoken.
The line becomes architecture. Paths, routes, and passages map psychological terrain — the space between inside and outside.
The body's outer layer as testimony. Wrinkles, folds, and scars appear as wandering lines on the surface of the material. Leather, paper, and wire trace the marks left by time, emotion, and encounter. The wound is also a record.
Where the journey arrives: pure psychological presence. Bronze, wire, and restrained painting distil years of practice into stillness. The figure exists between someone and no one.
Mariko Kumon began studying art at the age of 53 after a long life outside the art world. This late beginning profoundly shapes her work.
The lines that appear in her sculptures bend, hesitate, and intertwine, echoing the unpredictable paths of life. Conflict often becomes the starting point of her work; yet once the process begins, it turns into a kind of wandering. Rather than following a fixed plan, she allows intuition and interaction with the material to guide the work.
Based in Barcelona, Spain, Kumon investigates the psychological tension between perception and inner reality.
Exhibition documentation, studio process, and artist talks
Exhibition at Times Square, New York
Installation view
Featured in Artist Talk Magazine
Exhibition documentation
Artist talk and conference
Studio process
Work documentation
Opening of first solo show in Barcelona