Caroline Mak was born in England and raised in Hong Kong. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University and recent M.F.A graduate from the University of Chicago. Caroline moved to Brooklyn after graduation and set up a studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn where she primarily works in sculpture and installations, using materials that range from fabrics to industrial insulation foam.

Her background in biology is integral in her approach to her work. The influence of biology is evident in the organic and zoomorphic forms she creates in her installations and sculptures. That is not to say she makes art commenting on science or about science, but is very much aware of the impact biological systems have on our everyday existence and she tries to acknowledge this world, whether in forms that resemble amoeba or a model of a spreading disease that is referenced.

She is interested in pushing her work in the direction of becoming self-contained worlds, complete with their own emergent sets of patterns and inherent logic; she considers each installation an autonomous system that is capable of producing its own organization, drawing from the concept of autopoiesis a term originally coined by biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to describe biological systems like a cell.

Materiality is a vital part of her work, heavily influenced by trawling fabric stores and second hand stores; cheap strands of fake pearls and old doilies appear in altered forms and transformed contexts. Living much of her adult like in foreign cities has been a large influence---- she has witnessed the variety of materials that are used in different cultures for similar purposes.

www.carolinemak.com