Mika Rottenberg

Mika Rottenberg (b. 1976, Argentina) explores labor, value and production in our capitalistic and globally connected world. Her art practice includes video, drawing and sculpture created in a unique visual language that produces amplified distortions of our current global reality. For example, her immersive installations reveal an absurd collection of empty commodities, highlighting the senselessness of global distribution labor and wealth. Throughout her many projects, Rottenberg delivers sharp societal criticism with humor and cheeky exaggeration.

Born in Buenos Aires, Rottenberg spent her formative years in Israel, and then moved to the US for higher education. She earned her BA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and an MFA from Columbia University in 2004. In 2018, Rottenberg was the recipient of the Kurt Schwitters Prize and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize. Today, her works are found in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), among other public and private collections worldwide. The artist lives and works in New York City.

Related Works

• Mika Rottenberg addresses themes of labor and value in her interdisciplinary practice. El Anatsui explores similar concepts in his sculpture and printmaking practices, often employing entire villages to complete his monumental projects. View his work.

• In the collection of our sister gallery, form & concept, Thais Mather also explores roles that women play in contemporary society—from mothers to often-anonymous creators of craft objects. View her work.