Marcie Begleiter is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the edges of highly stressed bio-systems. “Chimera: the Future of Nature”, a series of films, photographs and sculptures is being created in rural sites on the Pacific Rim’s Ring of Fire. An upcoming solo show at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art will feature work from this series.
In 2024, she curated “Echoes of Voynich: Coded Systems in Contemporary Art”, part of the Getty Institute’s PST “Art & Science Collide” program. Screenings of her short animations include festivals in Copenhagen, London, New York and Mexico City. Group exhibits include CICA Museum, Seoul; Millennium Film Workshop in New York; The Praxis Center for Photography in Minneapolis; and UC Santa Barbara. Begleiter has attended residencies at the Banff Center, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology and PLAYA Summer Lake. The National Endowment for the Arts, LA Contemporary Exhibitions, the Foundation for Art Resources and the Hamburger Kunsthalle have provided funding for her work.
In 2015, the Whitney Museum premiered her film, “Eva Hesse”. The feature documentary is a portrait of the 1960s artist's life and work, and after a theatrical run in North America and Europe, was featured on PBS’ American Masters. She was Founding Director of the Integrated Learning Program at Otis College of Art, Associate Professor at Art Center College of Design, and a founding faculty member of the International Filmschule in Köln, Germany.
Artist Statement
I'm an interdisciplinary artist inspired by the speculative futures of biological systems. “Chimera: The Future of Nature”, my current series of animated films and sculpture photography, is sited in stressed biomes, inventing characters and objects that are assembled from unique biological debris. A work of hopeful regeneration, it is fueled by research in climate collapse and the ways biological entities evolve to meet the challenges of a rapidly shifting world.
My intention is to address the viewer’s sense of wonder and loss, offering an experience of the macro and micro worlds that are unseen or forgotten. These spaces reveal an ecosystem’s ability to remake itself in times of great stress. The footage, imagery and sculptures contain the hope of a future of nature that embraces both the sadness of what is passing and a celebration of what will come.
CV
Based in Los Osos and Los Angeles, CA
Film Festivals
2026 Taos Film Festival, Taos, NM
2026 MicroActs Artist Screenings, London, UK
2026 International Cosmopolitan Film Festival of Tokyo, Japan
2026 Mannheim Arts and Film Festival, Mannheim, Germany (Winner - Best Artist Film)
2025 New York Short Animation Festival (Finalist), New York, NY
2025 Swedenborg Film Festival, London, UK
2025. Kyoto Independent Film Festival, Kyoto, Japan (Semi-finalist)
2025 Moss Farm Invitational, Sacramento, CA
2025 Nature and Culture, Film Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark (Finalist)
2025 Festival Fotogenia, Mexico City, Mexico
Selected Exhibitions and Installations
2026 Chimera: Future of Nature San Luis Obispo Museum of Art - Solo exhibit (forthcoming)
2025 Quantum Intimacies Millennium Film Workshop, curated by Michéle St. Michel, Brooklyn, NY
2025 Negotiated Intelligence 7th Wrong Biennale, curated by Chun Wang
2024 Eco-Anxiety LA Center for Photography - Project Exhibition
2024 Echoes of Voynich Wonzimer Gallery, Los Angeles
2023 Nature: 2023 CICA Museum, Seoul
2022 What Will Remain (solo) Cambria Center for the Arts
2022 Macro>Larger Than Life Praxis Photo Arts Center, Minneapolis
2022 Surrealism NOW Orange County Center for the Arts, Santa Ana
2021 Patterns in Nature WoArt, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Regeneration Platform Gallery, UCSB, Santa Barbara
2021 Octopus Inspiration WoArt, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Drawing Roundup, Nine Vasari21, Taos New Mexico
2020 Love in the Time of Covid Harold J. Miossi Gallery, San Luis Obispo
2015 Eva Hesse (film) Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
2014 Storyboards and Photos Eykyn Maclean, NY
2006 Acquired Ancestors Venice ArtWalk, Los Angeles
2004 Otis College Selects Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica
1999 Projected Territories Downtown Art Alliance, Los Angeles
1998 Glow Foundation for Art Resources, Los Angeles
1997 Pasadena Pass-Through Pasadena Art Alliance, Pasadena
1996 Five Frame Film 18th St. Arts Complex, Santa Monica
1992 Sawtelle Domestic Setting, Los Angeles
1991 Feminist Majority Margot Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
Awards, Grants and Residencies
2026 Playa Summer Lake. Artist & Scientist awarded residency
2025 Studio Itoya, Takeo, Japan
2025 Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Preserve House Awarded Residency
2025 Center for Cultural Innovation Professional Development Grant
2024 Banff Center for the Arts, Leighton Program Residency
2015 Filmstiftung NrW Production Grant, Dusseldorf, Germany
2014 The Frances & Benjamin Benenson Foundation Development Grant
2014 The Audrey & Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation Grant
2014 The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Project Grant
2012 The Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, Travel Grant
2010 Durfee Foundation Project Grant, Los Angeles
2006 Art Center College Faculty Award
2003 Otis College of Art Faculty Award
1996 Foundation for Art Resources Project Grant, Los Angeles
1993 National Endowment for the Arts/LACES Project Grant: The Rise of Hip-Hop Civilization and its Discontents, Los Angeles
Publications as Author
“Why a Documentary on Eva Hesse was Long Overdue”, Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, May 2016
“Not Just for the Art World” Interview with International Documentary Association,
“Eva Hesse: One More Than One” Essay in Catalog at Hamberger Kunsthalle, Germany
“From Word to Image”, Published 2001, second edition 2010. Available in 5 languages from Michael Wiese Productions
Academic Positions
Founding Director of Integrated learning/Creative Action, Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, CA, 2005- 2008
Associate Professor, Graduate Department of Film, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, 2009-2014
Associate Professor, Digital Media, Otis College of Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1998-2005
Founding Faculty, Film, International Filmschule, Cologne, Germany, 1999-2015
Instructor, Public Programs, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, CA, 1993-2021
Guest Lecturer at UCLA, American Film Institute, The New School, University of Southern California, UC San Diego, The Paris Film Institute, British Film Institute
Bibliography
Lane Barden, “Echoes of Voynich: Coded Systems in Contemporary Art,” Artillery, Nov/Dec 2024
New Visionary Magazine, Feature with essay, Feb, 2024
Ann Landi, Vasari21, “What is Drawing, Part 9”, May 16, 2021
A.O. Scott, “Eva Hesse’ a Moving Portrait of an Artist’s Brief Life”, NYT, 2016
Mira Schor, "Eva Hesse Documentary", A Year of Positive Thinking, 2016
Joe Morgenstern, “The Persistence of the Ephemeral”, Wall Street Journal, 2016
Carolina Miranda, “Groundbreaking Sculptor Eva Hesse Finally Gets the Documentary She Deserves”, Los Angeles Times, 2016
Leah Garcheck, “Eva Hesse’s Life and More”, SF Gate, 2016
Amy Taubin, “Elastic Heart”, Art Forum, May, 2016
Benjamin Sutton, “A Psychological Portrait", Hyperallergic, May, 2026
Education
MFA Painting Art Center College of Design, Pasadena 1991
BA Hamilton/Kirkland Colleges. 1976
