Mari Katayama

Early life Katayama was born 1987 in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. She later moved to Gunma Prefecture, where she grew up. She was born with congenital tibial hemimelia, which caused her to have club feet and a cleft left hand.

Katayama began styling photographs of herself with her sculptures and posting them online on her Myspace page in high school. When starting out, she had her younger sister take photos of her.

As a teenager, she was inspired to begin drawing on her prosthetics after modeling in a show for fashion designer Tatsuya Shimada, who discovered her through her blog. Katayama ended up lengthening her prosthetics for the show, bringing her total height to .

Education Katayama graduated with a B.A from the Department of Aesthetics and Art History, Faculty of Literature at Gunma Prefectural Women's University in 2010.

She also studied at Tokyo University of the Arts, where she was mentored by the late Japanese curator Takashi Azumaya. With Azumaya's encouragement, she began to work as an artist.

Themes

When describing her work Katayama writes,"Who am I? This has always been a non-trivial question. Born with various developmental challenges, I had both legs amputated at the age of nine, and have since lived with prosthetics. The dolls and prosthetic legs that appear repeatedly in my work can be an attempt to objectify my own elusive body through the acts of measuring, disassembling, and re-joining. The objects that fill the safety zone that is my room give it the aspect of an armory." The collection of self-portraits was inspired by studying her own body and her experience being an amputee.

A retrospective of her work, titled 19872017, was shown at Gateau Festa Harada, a candy factory and gallery, in 2017.

In 2021, she presents several works, including her series In the Water at Maison Européenne de la Photographie in France.

2017 "19872017", Gallery Gateau Festa Harada, Gunma 2017 "On the Way Home", The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma 2016 "Self-portrait and object", Runaiss Hall, Okayama 2016 "Artist in Rokku vol.3 Mari Katayama / bystander", Miyaura Gallery Rokku, Naoshima 2016 "Shadow Puppet - 3331 ART FAIR recommended artists", 3331 Arts Chiyoda Tokyo 2015 "25 days in Tatsumachi Studio", Robson Coffee (Arts Maebashi), Gunma 2014 "you're mine", Traumaris, Tokyo 2014 "Mari Katayama solo exhibition", Kitchen Gallery, Paris 2009 "Mari Katayama solo exhibition", Gallery J, Gunma 2008 "Mari Katayama solo exhibition", Slow Time, Gunm

First solo exhibition in the United States From October 2019 to January 2020, Katayama displayed her photography, as well as a textile piece made of twine, pillows, pantyhose, seashells, and her own hair, at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. She spoke through an interpreter as part of the Penny Stamps Speaker Series. Her photographs for the show captured her in indoor and outdoor environments to "explore her identity by objectifying her body in her art".

Group exhibitions Katayama's work has been shown in multiple group exhibitions, starting with the Gunma Biennale for Young Artists in 2005 when she was 18 years old.

Her first major arts fair appearance was at the Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi Arts Center Nagoya. Her mixed media installation included found objects, dried flowers, prosthetics, apothecary jars, and photographs, among others.

In 2016, photographs from you're mine were included in Roppongi Crossing 2016: at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Her portrait for the exhibition, the theme of which was the human body and gender, featured her in lingerie without her prosthetics.

In 2019, Katayama's work was featured in both the Arsenal and Central Pavilion exhibiting areas of the 58th Venice Biennale, an international art exhibition in Venice, Italy. Her work was also presented by Sage Gallery booth at Paris Photo later that year.

Reception A review on Artsy by Alina Cohen commended her repurposing of traditional craft objects, and cinematic, glamorous imagery. Simon Baker of Tate Modern praised her use of "ideas about identity and performance" without being derivative.

Personal life Katayama is married and has one daughter, born in 2017. She lives in Gunma.