Shana Mabari is an American contemporary artist based in Los Angeles who has exhibited in the United States and internationally. Her work explores the intersections of art, science and technology.  Through sculptures, installations and environments, Mabari investigates ways in which worldly stimuli and phenomena are absorbed and processed through sensory and visual perception. She orchestrates light, reflection, color contrast, and geometry with the intent to play with the experience of physical space.  

  

Mabari is part of the continuum of the Light and Space movement that originated in California in the 1960s. Her inspirations include James Turrell, Buckminster Fuller, and groundbreaking research by experts in the Vision Sciences at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, and the Institute of Neuroinformatics, Zurich, Switzerland, where’s she’s collaborated with world renowned vision scientists. 

 

In 2016, Mabari’s “Astral Challenger,” a 20-foot-high rocket-shaped sculpture, was installed in the center of a new roundabout at the intersection of Challenger Way and Avenue L in Lancaster, CA.  The work is the first piece of public art commissioned by the City of Lancaster for its new Art and Public places program, and will remain at the site permanently.  Mabari conceived the piece as a monumental landmark for Lancaster in honor of the City’s ongoing achievements in the aerospace industry, and in commemoration of the 1986 space shuttle Challenger flight.  Of the design, she says, “Eight vibrant blue acrylic panels pay tribute to the seven lives lost in the disaster, plus one to collectively represent the family members and friends who still grieve.”

Astral Challenger was featured in NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) official publication for the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA.  In the article, Jay Levine, X-Press Editor at NASA Armstrong, quotes former shuttle manager George Grimshaw as saying, “Astral Challenger is a great tribute to Challenger and the STS-51L crew…As NASA makes plans to go to Mars and uses commercial services to deliver supplies and crews to the ISS, it is very important to remember those who gave their lives in pursuit of the many benefits space affords us. We honor them when we learn from the problems of the past and apply what we have learned to further our work in space."

Surrounded at the top and bottom by cobalt blue acrylic panels, Astral Challenger is fabricated from two-inch-square stainless steel tubes.  The sculpture is illuminated from dusk until dawn by LED lights encased in its 19-foot diameter concrete pad.

 

Previously in Lancaster, Mabari’s sculptural installation “Diametros Petals” was shown at the Museum of Art & History (MOAH) in Lancaster, California (December 2015 – January 2016).  Specifically designed for MOAH’s scenic rooftop, Diametros Petals comprised a constellation of vibrantly colored mirrored and translucent discs.

 

Mabari’s 2014 public art project ILLUMETRIC, a triptych of massive diamond-, cube-, and rectangle-shaped sculptures, was created for the City of West Hollywood’s “Art on the Outside” public art program.  She worked with legendary fabricator Jack Brogan on the design concepts for this project, which was constructed with colored acrylic panels, and featured internal LED illumination for nighttime display. In a “Culture Monster” story, the Los Angeles Timesreported, “Mabari, who hails from the Fairfax district, said…that the installation is ‘a study of color, geometry, light and scale.’” Originally installed in July 2014 for a one year period, ILLUMETRIC was extended through April 2016.  Mabari also received a WeHo@30 Film & Digital Media Grant to make Illumetric, a short film chronicling the project that premiered at the 2015 WeHo@30 Film Festival and Digital Time Capsule. 

 

Three- dimensional work by Mabari—including Cube and Diametros Petals sculptures—is also now on exhibition at Imago Galleries in Palm Desert, CA.  Diametros Petals have also been installed at Beverly Hills estate listed for $44 million that was featured in the Los Angeles Times and The Real Deal. 

 

Mabari was born in Los Angeles, California. She has traveled extensively, and lived in Paris, Northern India, and Tel Aviv.  Her education includes studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.  She holds a patent for the design of “Dynamic Spatial Illusions,” a portable version of a visual and sensory experimental environment. She is a recipient of the Center for Cultural Innovation ARC grant. 

 

LA TIMES ARTICLE

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BORN 1969
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California

EDUCATION

1998 B.F.A. Otis College of Art and Design
1989-1991 École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris
École Parsons à Paris
American University of Paris
1987-1989 Otis    Art    Institute    of    Parsons    School    of    Design

COMMISSIONED PUBLIC ART

2016 Astral Challenger, Lancaster, CA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 ILLUMETRIC: RECTANGLE, El Paseo Sculpture Exhibition, Palm Desert, CA
2017 Selected Works, Pacific Design Center Lobby, Los Angeles, CA
2015-2016 Diametros Petals, Museum of Art and History (MOAH), Lancaster, CA
2014-2016 ILLUMETRIC, Art on the Outside, West Hollywood, CA
2013 INFINITY II, Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Palm Springs, CA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018 Light and Line, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA
Leukos Petals, MATT Construction, Los Angeles, CA
Leukos Petals and Diametros Petals, IMAGO Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
2017 UN/CONSCIOUS. Gatzara, Ibiza, Spain
2017-2019 Leukos Petals, IMAGO Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
2016 Surface, CMay Gallery, West Hollywood, CA
2016-2019 Diametros Petals, IMAGO Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
2015 GREEN, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles, CA
2014- 2016 Cubes, IMAGO Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
2014- 2016 Diamond, CMay Gallery, West Hollywood, CA

2014 Cultural Excavation, Gallery 825-LAAA, Los Angeles, CA
Out There, Gallery 825-LAAA, West Hollywood, CA
2013 Luminosity, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles, CA
2012 INFINITY, Gallery 825-LAAA, West Hollywood, CA
2011 Chain Letter, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 SEE THRU, ICON, Los Angeles, CA
SEE THRU, Gallery 825-LAAA, Los Angeles, CA
2009 The AFTERIMAGE Collective, L2kontemporary, Los Angeles, CA
2007 Close Encounter-Science Meets Art, National Taiwan University, Taipei
2006 Installation of Large Scale Optical Illusions, Vision Science Society, Sarasota,FL
2005 Installation of Large Scale Optical Illusions, Vision Science Society, Sarasota,FL
2004 Motion Induced Blindness, Caltech, Pasadena, CA                     
2003 Dept of Industrial Design - Open House, Art Center, Pasadena, CA
Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop, Telluride, CO
2001 Trail Makers: A Sylvan Transformation, New Town, Pasadena, CA                                 
2000 Art in Tents, New Town, Pasadena, CA
1998 Travelers Exhibition, Rachael Stein Gallery, Tel Aviv                                                    
1996 Spiritual Worlds, New Delhi Cultural Center, India                                 
1994 Venice Art Detour, Nova Space, Venice, CA                    
1993 Urban Expressionism, Goddess Gallery, Los Angeles, CA                         
1990 Group Show, Paris, France

ART FAIRS

2019   LA Art Show, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA

2018, LA Art Show, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2018  Art Market San Francisco, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, San Franisco, CA

2018 Market Art + Design, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Bridgehampton, NY

2018, Art Aspen, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Aspen Colorado
2017 Art Aspen, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Aspen, CO
2015 Art Aspen, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Aspen, CO
2013 Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Palm Springs, CA