“But after a while talking to her and looking at her art, you get the feeling that she’s not so much an uncomfortable person as she is curious and awed. Her “foreign-ness” seems more like a child’s curiosity, as she seems to be looking around the world for new and amazing things to find a better understanding of the world in which she lives.”
-Shawn Olson, art critic, 2002
Midwest-based Mabi Ponce de León was born in Argentina and has also lived in Mexico. Ponce de León works with a variety of both analog and digital media and is strongly influenced by culture, maps, location, and origins. Research also plays an important part in Ponce de León’s work. Her installation work makes use of manipulated natural and manufactured materials whereas the two-dimensional work relies on juxtapositions of found and new images. Over a ground of maps, charts, and other found images, she superimposes larger diagrams and related motifs. Layered juxtapositions of concrete, symbolic, and abstract elements develop into complex, intuitive scenes.
Ponce de León has shown in university and commercial galleries, art centers, museums, and non-profit exhibition spaces. Additionally, she has curated shows and has worked with arts organizations, including assisting with the former ACME Art Company’s fundraisers and serving on the board of the Ohio Art League. In addition, she is a member of Woman Made Gallery in Chicago.
She has received a BFA from Florida International University, an MFA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and an MA and PhD in art history from The Ohio State University.