Irene Mamiye is a New York based artist whose work includes photography, video, and digital imaging techniques. Utilizing light, color and movement, Mamiye softens the contrast between virtual and physical reality. Impacted by her own personal history and various artists; such as Laszlo Moholy Nagy & Gerhard Richter, Mamiye employs a complex, labor intensive processes to question what is anticipated of the photographic medium. Selecting photos from social media, Mamiye changes the wealth of public images into abundantly coated works that insinuate a life lived between screens. Mamiye creates pieces loaded with art, historical depth and pop cultural abundance with a lively yet mordant humor.

Irene Mamiye was born in Marseille, France and immigrated to the U.S as a teenager. She holds a BA in Photography and Global Studies from Gallatin New York University and an MFA in Lens Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is currently represented by Lanoue Gallery in Boston.

Mamiye’s extensive body of work, including digital images, videos, and furniture designs, has been widely exhibited across the United States. Her work was included in the landmark exhibition The Edge of Vision (2009), mounted by the Aperture Foundation, and in the Museum of Art and Design’s Multiple Exposures: Jewelry and Photography (2014). Mamiye’s work has also been featured in the following publications: Architectural Digest, Interior Design Magazine, Vanity Fair, People Magazine, Elle Décor and InStyle.

“I use digital programs as if they were physical tools. Distorting, assembling, layering, feathering, scaling, and changing opacity are my paintbrushes and the found imagery is my paint. This process deliberately reintroduces familiar strategies of chance, subconscious response, and even physical gestures that the computer is conventionally supposed to have banished. Likewise, the resulting outputs (pigment print on canvas, diasec, paper, and even glass) explore experiences of surface pioneered by modern artists and flattened to nothingness in a digital age.

My work often includes painterly pieces that blur the boundaries between photography and painting. Blazing uses good quality canvas, and the printing is so expert. It fits perfectly with my collages which are found images of both photographs and paint strokes. Also, I love how archival the metal is and how deep the detail renders, and I find it far superior to chromogenic printing.”

— Irene Mamiye