Where Do All the Zeros Come From? A Conversation with Mariana Parisca

June 15, 2020

Artist Mariana Parisca immigrated to the United States from
Venezuela in 2000. Working across many mediums, she makes
intimate, sensual, and experiential work that considers the
effects and conditions of global neoliberal capitalism.

Chase Westfall, Director and Curator of Student Exhibitions and Programs at The Anderson, spoke with Parisca, a 2020 graduate from the VCUarts MFA program in Sculpture + Extended Media Studies, about her practice on April 13, 2020.

I think it’s very important to recognize moments of belief and the authority those moments have. That recognition can give society the power to reconstruct and reorder things in different ways.
Mariana Parisca

Read the interview

Mariana Parisca has received numerous awards and scholarships including the Elliot Scholarship, the Paul F. Miller Scholarship, and a VCUarts Graduate Research Grant. She attended the Vermont Studio Residency in 2015 and has been critically engaged in art pedagogy through her position as Admissions Counselor at the Sam Fox School and her involvement in community projects with Immigrant Movement International (hosted by the Queens Museum) and St. Louis Story Stitchers.

Parisca’s work has been shown at the Millitzer Gallery, Bruno David Gallery, Des Lee Gallery, the CAM in St. Louis, MO as well as at New Works Gallery in Chicago, IL. She has current and upcoming exhibitions at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (March 21, 2020–January 3, 2021) and The Anderson (September 15–25, 2020).

In 2015, Parisca earned a BFA in Studio Art and Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2020, she earned an MFA in Sculpture & Extended Media from VCUarts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.