Marie-José Robinson Kafri
Marie-José Robinson Kafri is a multidisciplinary artist and creator. For her, art is a necessary part of every moment in life. Predominantly self-taught, Marie-José is an inquisitive creator.
Marie-José's artistic journey began with a career as a professional dancer. She studied at Maurice Béjart's École Mudra in Belgium, the Martha Graham School, and the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble in New York. She performed with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Ballets-Jazz de Montréal, touring internationally. Later, she pursued roles as an educator and dance teacher at various universities worldwide, guiding other educators and professionals on how to use movement and creativity in their work.
Today, Marie-José is a resident artist at the World Trade Center Artist Residency program. Her current work focuses on the intersection of movement and painting, creating a full-circle connection between movement in her dance and the movements within her painting.
Statement
I consider my creative process a journey that has taken me on many different paths. My work subjects are inspired by my love of nature, exploration of roots, connections, belonging, and more.
Curiosity guides me to refuse to limit myself to a single art form or style. I prefer to defy the boundaries of art. Hence, you’ll find my work utilizing traditional techniques, yet processed unexpectedly with tools brought together in new and exciting ways. My passion for experimentation has also led me to work with many mediums and tools through intuitive techniques, and I suppose one could call that a form of agency and liberation. I look for the creative richness of the extraordinarily mundane and freely choose my medium based on what I currently feel the most. My diversity of roles in life, and the intersectional part in me, all speak through my art. I find the process of art both healing and revealing.
I hope to give pause to anyone who comes across my art, so they too can acknowledge their many identities.
What initially sparked your interest in art?
I have always been interested in art and art-making. It fascinates me to see how magical and powerful the world becomes through art—one can create a magical world or a refuge that feels both personal and communal at the same time. This extends beyond visual art to other forms like storytelling, music, and dance.
Professionally, I started my artistic journey and training as a professional dancer. It allowed me to witness early on the profound impact that the arts had on audiences and on me as the artist. I performed and toured the world, expressing myself through movement, and later shared my knowledge as a choreographer and educator. When life presented me with various health challenges, I turned more and more to visual arts, and have since fully immersed myself in it. Whether through dance, painting, sculpting, or other forms of art, I am always seeking to express myself creatively. Movement remains especially dear to me and continues to emerge as a theme, even in my visual artwork.
What connects your work together and what keeps you creating?
Common threads unite my work through the process in which it is created, the reasons behind creating it, and the themes I explore. Intuition is my main way of working and links all my pieces. Another connection is my drive—curiosity, love for exploration, and a deep desire to reveal the beauty that surrounds us, while fostering connections with the natural world and fellow humans.
Although I work in many different styles and techniques (often creating outside of traditional definitions), underlying themes of movement, freedom, beauty, mysticism, and spirituality are embedded in all my works. Additionally, a quest for understanding the many facets of my identity is another thread running through my creative endeavors. This journey of discovery fuels my creative process.
What keeps me creating is the desire to become more precise and refined in my expressions. I view the creative process as a journey, and art-making as a fundamental need in my life.
Describe your work using three words.
Intuitive, transformative, healing.
What are you most proud of as an artist, whether it's a specific moment or who you are as an artist?
Authenticity. In both my creative process and everyday life, I take the most pride in staying true to myself.
If you could be in a two-person exhibition with any artist from history, who would it be and why?
Choosing from inspiring artists, I’d start with Gustav Klimt, whose work profoundly influenced my teenage years. Additionally, Monet's romantic gardens and Gerhard Richter's contemporary, liberating abstracts resonate with me. Imagining my paintings in the same space with another artist, I think of Gerhard Richter's immersive works aligning seamlessly with my artistic vision. There’s something very special about the idea that the worlds created by other artists could intersect with mine, with our materials, textures, and dimensions engaging with one another.
