Mari Amman (b. 1984) is an American-Italian artist examining epistemology to reflect on the influence of the imaginary realm on reality. Following her first public exhibition in 1999 of land art, she pursued interests in Geological Empathy and Sublime Rheology. Her research-based approach to creating images, installations, video performances, poetry, paintings, sculptures, textiles and design foster understandings of transcendent experiences (the sublime). Amman collaborates with scientists, music, architecture, and culture professionals to question and convey effects of idealistic concepts on physical structures including biology, geology, resource usage, and built environment. Her works often position human cognition in an endless learning relationship, with that which cannot be named yet is often described as Nature, or a non-ideaological force.
A selection of international awards, residencies, and screenings: Omniscient, monolithic image and text, 1st by the jury in the Imaging New Eurasia exhibition at the Asia Culture Center, in Gwangju (SK, 2015). PraksisOslo Residency and Praxis Dansfestivalen at KHiO/Dansenhus (NO, 2017), Butoh Residency with Mushimaru Fujieda at KHiO (NO, 2018), Angelot-Trélex Residency (CH, 2019), UKS Young Artists’ Society Residency (NO, 2019), Atelier Nord Residency (NO, 2024, 2019), Afjordance screening, AWMAS (UCSB, 2020), Kjerringøy Land Art Residency (NO, 2020), Stefan Simchowitz (US, 2020) collecting her work, Paris Poetry Residency with Trélex Residencies (FR, 2023), Bonny Doon Residency (US, 2022), foundational support and exhibitions for Art Farm Iowa (US, 2023), and Arte Expuesto (MX, 2023).
She holds a Master of Fine Art (Honors) with Frankfurt School Theory/Conceptual Studio Practice from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California (2015), and Bachelor of Fine Art (Dean’s List) in Advertising/Interior Architecture and Design from Illinois Institute of Art (2006), with studies in Photography and History of Photography at College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, and Social Psychology at Ehime University in Matsuyama, Japan (2012), Norwegian language (2014-2016), Italian language and culture (2025 – ongoing), with ~12 years of classical piano studies, and classical voice and dance training since childhood. Amman is a member of Leica Society International, Pneuma Art Foundation, BONO, Norske Billkedkunstnere, video work registered withVideokunstarkivet, works represented by Daidda Gallery in Oslo, Albumen Gallery in London, and registered as an EIT Culture & Creativity Expert Evaluator with the EU Institute of Innovation and Technology.
Amman’s artistic research in Aesthetic Resonances, Phlegrian Fields, Landcape-Memory-Eros developed from Pattern Recognition, Visual Literacy, and Body Architecture methods. Her interest in Understanding through arts arose from being raised near the Agonic line, surrounded by forest, prairie, a nuclear power plant, industrial agriculture, auto-ethnography with paternal heritage to political activist Ellen Ammann, landscape artist Harriet Sundström, and maternal Umbrian-Italian heritage. Amman’s foundational training in music and dance underscores her artistic research involving geology, resonances, orology, dream study, social psychology, philosophy, temporality, memory, somatics and parietal perception. Her commitment to bringing harmony into reflective and strangely beautiful cultural work aims to uncover discernments and recenter hearts during geopolitical and technological transitions.
