CV

Lived

1945–1998

Education

1975 MFA,
School of the Arts,
Columbia University

1968 Graduate study,
University of California at Berkeley

1967 BA,
Mount Holyoke College

Download Mary Ann's CV here

Solo Exhibitions

2022 / Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, Mary Ann Unger: To Shape a Moon from Bone

2019 / Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Mary Ann Unger, Fluid Line: 1968–83

2019 / Frieze New York, Spotlight Section, Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Mary Ann Unger

2016 / NYC Parks, PS 1 Greenstreet, Queens, NY, Mary Ann Unger: Unfurling

2016 / Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Mary Ann Unger: Flesh and Bone, Retrospective 1976–1998

2011 / Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Geometry: Selected Works from the Estate of Mary Ann Unger

2000 / McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown, OH, Mary Ann Unger: In Life’s Balance (15 year Retrospective)

1999 / Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, NY, Last Works

1997 / Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, NY, Mary Ann Unger: New Sculpture and Drawings (catalogue)

1997 / New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, Recent Works by Mary Ann Unger

1994 / Trans Hudson Gallery, Jersey City, NJ, Across the Bering Strait

1992 / Klarfeld Perry Gallery, New York, NY, Dark Icons (catalogue)

1988 / Bellevue Hospital Park, New York, NY, Family (site-specific installation)

1988 / City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, Tweed Garden (site-specific installation)

1986 / Sculpture Center, New York, NY, Communion

1985 / Tweed Courthouse, New York, NY, Tweed Garden (site-specific installation)

1985 / Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts, Roslyn, NY, Gardens

1984 / John Jay College Sculpture Garden, New York, NY, Mary Ann Unger: Paradise as a Garden and Other Wood Constructions

1983 / 55 Mercer, New York, NY, Waterfalls

1982 / City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, Paradise as a Garden (site-specific installation)

1977 / 5 East Third Street Studio, New York, NY, 10 Downtown

Awards

1995 / Pollock-Krasner Foundation (also 1989)

1994 / Yaddo Residency Fellowship (also 1980, 1978)

1992 / Guggenheim Fellowship

1990 / New York Foundation for the Arts

1990 / Athena Foundation

1990 / Artists Fellowship, Inc.

1985 / New York State Council on the Arts (also 1981, 1979)

1979 / C.A.P.S. Grant in Sculpture

1979 / Kutztown State College, Research Grant

1978 / Committee for the Visual Arts, Artists Space

Permanent Site Commissions

1991 / Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, Flushing, NY, Ode to Tatlin

1991 / North Regional Courthouse, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Pineapple

1990 / Merrimack Riverfront Park, Lawrence, MA, Gazebo

1989 / Cave Creek Sports Complex, Phoenix, AZ, Tower

1989 / City Hall Plaza, Tampa, FL, Wave

1988 / Gaithersburg Regional Library, Gaithersburg, MD, Muktesvara Arch

1987 / Princeton Forrestal Village, Princeton, NJ, Forrestal Garden

1987 / Lehigh University, Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Gardens, Bethlehem, PA, The Temple

1986 / Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, Temple

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 / Mary Ann Unger Estate, New York, NY,  Eve Biddle | Mary Ann Unger: Generation

2023 / Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Eve Biddle | Mary Ann Unger: Generation

2022 / Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, In the Balance: Between Painting and Sculpture, 1965–1985

2022 / WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC, New York, NY, Artists on the Bowery Part 3

2022 / Mary Ann Unger Estate, New York, NY, The Sword in the Stone

2018 / Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA, Major Themes, Celebrating 10 Years of Teaching with Art

2018 / Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA, Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood: 40 YRS

2014 / Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., Speculative Forms

2014 / Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Seven Decades of Optic Art

2013 / Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, Its Surreal Thing: The Temptation of Objects (catalogue)

2012 / Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA, Against the Wall: Contemporary Art from the Collection

2012 / Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, Close Relations and A Few Black Sheep: Sculpture from the Permanent Collection

2012 / Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Gallery Selections

2001 / Gallery 128, New York, NY, Clay on the Wall

2000 / Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, Drawn Across the Century: Highlights from the Dillard Collection of Art on Paper

1997 / Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, Strong Spirits, curated by Robert Taplin

1996 / Robert Hull Flemming Museum at the University of Vermont, Burlington,VT, Healing Legacies (traveling)

1996 / Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, NY, New Sculpture

1995 / TZ’Art & Co., New York, NY, Bodies / Transformations (also curated)

1995 / College Art Gallery, State University of New York at New Paltz, New York, Domestic Policies

1995 / Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY, In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the ‘90s (catalogue)

1995 / Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, Sculpture Space: Celebrating 20 Years (catalogue)

1995 / Proctor Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Body as Metaphor, curated by Josephine Gear

1994 / Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID, Fabricated Nature (catalogue, traveling)

1993 / The Bowers Cultural Museum, Orange County, CA, Memories, Milestones, and Miracles, curated by Charlotte S. Rubinstein (catalogue, traveling)

1993 / Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY, Invitational

1993 / Schick Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, Form, Shape, and Vision

1992 / Klarfeld Perry Gallery, New York, NY, Self Portraits

1992 / Gallery Three Zero, New York, NY, Apocalypse and Resurrection, curated by Douglas Maxwell (catalogue)

1992 / Bill Bace Gallery, New York, NY, LARGESCALE

1992 / Valencia Community College, Orlando, FL, Embracing the Void, curated by Judith Page (catalogue)

1991 / Klarfeld Perry Gallery, New York, NY, Figures and Faces

1991 / Aljira Contemporary Arts Center, Newark, NJ, Review, Preview V

Selected Bibliography

Leah Triplett Harrington, “A Mother and Daughter Find Each Other in Art”, Hyperallergic, September, 2023

Laura Van Straaten, "Eve Biddle is Her Mother's Daughter", Town & Country Magazine, February, 2023

Andrew L. Shea, "‘In the Balance: Between Painting and Sculpture, 1965-1985’ Review: Happy Medium", The Wall Street Journal, January, 2023

Leah Triplett Harrington, "Mary Ann Unger", Sculpture Magazine, December 2022

Maura Thomas, "Editor's Choice", Sculpture Magazine, November 2022

Jackson Davidow, "Mary Ann Unger", Artforum, November 2022

Frieze Exhibition Reviews, "Shows to See in the US This August" Frieze, August 2022

Cassie Packard, "Mary Ann Unger's Patterns of Movement", Frieze, July 2022

Jennie Goldstein, "Balancing Acts", Whitney Museum of American Art, October 2022

Stephanie Sparling Williams, "Where the Body Ends: The Work of Maren Hassinger and Mary Ann Unger", Woman's Art Journal, Fall/ Winter 2021

Deena ElGenaidi, “Whitney Museum Receives Works by Mary Ann Unger”, Hyperallergic, October, 2018

Sarah Cascone, “See New York's Most Stunning Public Art Shows This Spring”, artnet News, April, 2016

Kirsten Fawcett, “Smithsonian Spotlight: In Context”, Smithsonian Magazine, July / August, 2014

Kara L. Rooney, “Geometry: Selected Works from the Estate of Mary Ann Unger”, The Brooklyn Rail, July, 2011

Ana Honigman, “Clay on the Wall at Gallery 128”, NYArts, March, 2001

Mark Daniel Cohen, "Mary Ann Unger: Last Works", Review: The Critical State of Visual Art in New York, May, 1999

Roberta Smith, “Mary Ann Unger, 53, a Noted Sculptor and Curator, Is Dead”, The New York Times, January, 1999

Judith Page, “Mary Ann Unger: Beneath the Skin”, Sculpture Magazine, April, 1998

Jonathan Goodman,“Review of Exhibitions: Mary Ann Unger at Trans Hudson”, Art in America, October, 1997

George Melrod, “Sculpture”, Sculpture Magazine, September–October, 1994

Vivian Raynor, “Sculptural Works that Defy the Limitations of Definition”, The New York Times, May, 1994

Vivian Raynor, “Images Made by Slicing and Reassembling”, The New York Times, April, 1994

George Melrod, “Bridging Extremities”, Public Art Review, Fall / Winter, 1993

Sylvia Netzer, “Mary Ann Unger, Klarfeld Perry Gallery”, Sculpture Magazine, July–August, 1992

Michael Kimmelman, “Sculpture, Sculpture Everywhere”, The New York Times, July, 1992

Robert Taplin, “Mary Ann Unger at Klarfeld Perry”, Art in America, June, 1992

Arlene Raven, “Nothing Stays Still”, The Village Voice, April, 1992

Kay Larson, “Small Wonders”, New York Magazine, March, 1992

Esther Iverem, “Neighborhood News”, Newsday, Queens Edition, November, 1991

Michael Brenson, “American Beauties”, The New York Times, March, 1991

Michael Brenson, “The State of the City as Sculptors See It”, The New York Times, July, 1990

Edward J. Sozanski, “Alfresco Sculpture Gallery at the Abington Art Center”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June, 1990

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