Couched in warm coloring and superficially playful details, my work examines the absurd and the hypocritical. In the process, I illuminate uncomfortable personal and social truths: hypocrisy, pride, obsession, and alienation. My goal is to unmoor, not to comfort—I begin with my own discomfort.
I work with small canvases and large tools so that dust motes, erased marks, smudges, and noise become exaggerated when digitally translated. Part of my interest in animation as an expressive medium is my fascination with texture and grain, which are emphasized in motion and repetition. Compositionally, I employ a flat, forced perspective, taking influence from puppetry and theatrical staging. Accumulated, these visual elements become densely-layered worlds and, as tableaus, convey the effect of compressed time.
My characters echo different parts of my own personality and the personalities of people I love (or love to hate)—I take inspiration from their hair, clothing, accessories, body language, and speech. They haunt worlds that personify their emotional states, and their private desires conflict with their public ones. I’m interested in stories about characters who hold untenable hypocrisies, who are not self-aware, and who are ultimately very lonely. I place them in moments of mundane and existential absurdity, magnifying their internal conflicts. As in gothic narratives, my settings are atmospheric and expressionistic but rooted in close observation of the world around me. In my daily life, I often draw in sketchbooks, and I bring what I see and experience into my films. These grounded details lend intimacy and tangibility to uncanny dreamscapes, and their specificity allows me to employ them as tools for social satire.
The systems I am most interested in satirizing are the spaces I’m invited into but feel conflicted about. As my position in this world evolves, so do these spaces, but my work has previously interrogated Asian-American conservatism, technospirituality, suburban homogeneity, parasociality, misogyny, and body dysmorphia. These issues reflect my own hypocrisies. I am specifically interested in exploring how, as a cultural consumer, I am both drawn to and repelled by technological potential. The false, sparkling promise of the internet is one of inorganic mass kinship at the expense of individual expression and the natural world. Yet I keep returning.
My work ultimately emphasizes the experience of aliveness: psychological instability, animism, subjective time, and a perpetual hum or vibration around all things. These qualities exist most strongly at the threshold between wakefulness and sleep, which is where my imagination is most fruitful and where truth is most accessible.
marcielacerte@gmail.com / marslizard.net / Minneapolis, MN
Represented by Jacky Winter Group.
Marcie LaCerte is a mixed Chinese-American animator, filmmaker, and illustrator living and working in Minneapolis.
EDUCATION
| 2014–16 | BFA in Animation / Minneapolis College of Art and Design / Minneapolis, MN |
| 2012–14 | Studies in Psychology / University of California, Los Angeles / Los Angeles, CA |
FILMOGRAPHY & INTERACTIVE
| 2026 | The Pleasure-Dome (8 min) / Director Supported by the Jerome Hill Foundation, the Jacob Burns Film Center, and the Bethany Arts Community |
| 2021 | Invisible Monsters and Tomato Soup (5 min) / Co-director and animator Acquired by The New Yorker Screenings: RiverRun International Film Festival (2022), ANNY (Animation Nights New York) (2021), Bushwick Film Festival (2021), ANIMA - Córdoba International Animation Festival (2021), Walla Walla Movie Crush (2021), AFI Docs (2021), Animatricks (2021), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (2021), Girls in Film x The Other Art Fair (2021) |
| 2020 | Coxswain’s Chicken Kitchen (3 min) / Director Screenings: Bizarroland Film Festival (formerly Sick ‘n’ Wrong Film Festival) (2021), Davis Feminist Film Festival (2021), Fest Anča International Animation Festival (2021), Toronto Animation Arts Festival International (TAAFI) (2021), Malt Adult (2021) |
| 2017–19 | An Afternoon Rippling (game) / Creator Awards: Finalist, Best Narrative / Brazil’s Independent Games Festival (2017) Screenings: Brazil's Independent Games Festival (2017), Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade (2017), Game Happens (2017), Game Devs of Color Expo (2017) |
| 2017 | Summer of Love (3 min) / Director Awards: Vimeo Staff Pick (2017), Cartoon Brew Pick of the Day (2018) Screenings: Girls In Film x Shoreditch Arts Club (2024), International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR (2021), Ladies with Lenses x Panimation (2019), Collective Misnomer (2018), GLAS Animation (2018), Altered Esthetics Film Festival (2018), Locomoción Experimental Animation Festival (2017), Lush Creative Showcase (2017), Ladies With Lenses (2017), Malt Adult (2017), Square Lake Film Festival (2017), Istanbul Comics and Art Festival (2017), Rimonim Art Gallery (2017) |
SELECTED AWARDS & GRANTS
| 2026 |
Nominee, Student-Driven Teaching Appreciation Award / University of Minnesota, The College of Design / St. Paul, MN |
| 2024 | ADC Young Guns Finalist / The One Club for Creativity |
| COLORFUL Finalist / The One Club for Creativity | |
| 2023 | Alternate Grant / Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Film and Video / New York, NY |
| 2021 | Documentary Acquisition / The New Yorker |
| 2017 | Staff Pick / Vimeo |
| Best Narrative Finalist / Brazil's Independent Games Festival / São Paulo, Brazil |
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
| 2022 | Multidisciplinary Residency / Bethany Arts Community / Ossining, NY |
| 2021–22 | Silver Sun Diverse Voices Fellowship / Jacob Burns Film Center / Pleasantville, NY |
| 2019 | Artist in Residence / Light Grey Art Lab / Húsavík, Iceland |
ARTIST TALKS & WORKSHOPS
| 2024 | Saturday Career Workshops / New York, NY |
| Columbia College of Art and Design / Online | |
| 2022 | Bethany Arts Community / Ossining, NY |
| 2021 | CalArts Experimental Animation / Online |
| 2020 | Living Room Light Exchange / New York, NY |
| 2019 | Light Grey Art Lab / Húsavík, Iceland |
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & MENTORSHIP
| 2026 | Adjunct faculty / Professional Practice: Animation (undergraduate) / Minneapolis College of Art and Design / Minneapolis, MN |
| 2025–26 | Adjunct faculty / Illustration (undergraduate and graduate) / University of Minnesota, Twin Cities / St. Paul, MN |
| 2025 | Mentor / Nice Moves / Minneapolis, MN |
| Jury / Minnesota Electronic Theater / Minneapolis, MN |
| 2020–21 | Motion graphics designer / Vox/Netflix / Remote |
| 2019–20 | Motion graphics designer / Great Big Story / New York, NY |
| 2018–19 | Animator / Quartz / New York, NY |
| 2017–18 | Video intern / NPR / New York, NY |
COMMISSIONED SERIAL WORK
| 2025–26 | Melting Into Air (podcast) / Producer, editor, and art director |
| Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Editorial illustrator | |
| 2022 | Scientific American / A Question of Sex (digital series) / Art director and animator Nominee, Outstanding Online Journalism, GLAAD Media Awards, 2023 |
| Potential Energy Coalition / What To Do U (digital series) / Art director and animator | |
| PBS / Far Out (digital series) / Art director and animator | |
| 2020–21 | Vox and Netflix / Explained (TV series) / Animator |
| 2018–19 | Quartz / Quartz News (digital series) / Animator Finalist, Video: News & Politics, Webby Awards, 2019 |
| 2017–18 | NPR / Foraging (digital series) / Animator Finalist, Online Video: on Location, James Beard Awards, 2018 |
SELECTED COMMISSIONED SOLO WORK
| 2026 | OER Project / The History of Energy / Animation director |
| 2025 | YouTube / Musical Theater Yoodle (12s) / Animator |
| Edutopia / How to Engage Introverted Learners (3 min) / Animation director | |
| Edutopia / How AI Vaporizes Long-Term Learning (2 min) / Animation director | |
| 2024 | Armadillo Collective / Maine Families (15s) / Animation director |
| 2023 | Compostudio / Old Lesbians (30 min) / Art director and animator Supported by Aesthetica Film Festival x Audible Acquired by The Guardian |
| Berlin-Rosen / Abortion On Our Own Terms (two 30s) / Animation director | |
| 2022 | Edutopia / A Landmark Study Strikes A Resounding Note for Inclusion (90s) / Animation director |
| Chase Bliss Audio / Logo (5s) / Animation director | |
| 2021 | Giphy / Vaccine Spring (30s) / Director |
| 2020 | Great Big Story / Everything You Wanted To Know About Animal Farts (3 min) / Animation director |
| 2019 | Quartz / The Early Web (9 min) / Co-producer and animator |
| Invisibilia / The fMRI Machine (3 min) / Animation director | |
| 2018 | Quartz / The secret life of kids on YouTube (11 min) / Creative producer and animator |
| Quartz / The Shrek Fandom (8 min) / Producer | |
| 2017–18 | NPR / The Marshmallow Test (3 min) / Animation director Screenings: Asian American Film Thing (2019), New York Video Consortium (2019), Ottawa International Animation Festival (2018) |
| 2018 | School of Life / What We Might Learn In Couples Therapy (5 min) / Animation director |
| School of Life / How To Stop Being A People Pleaser (4 min) / Animation director | |
| NPR / Why Cities Are Still So Segregated (6 min) / Animation director Second Place, Issue Reporting, White House News Photographers Association, 2019 |