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
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
Public Collections
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
The Dorsky Museum, State University of New York at New Paltz, NY
The Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi, Ghent, NY
Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY
Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Hillwood Art Museum of Long Island University, Charles William Post College, Greenvale, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA
Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, NY
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
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
2024/ Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, Craft Front & Center : Conversation Pieces
2024/ Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, + collection
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 / 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
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 / 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
Laura Van Straaten, "Eve Biddle is Her Mother's Daughter", Town & Country Magazine, February, 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
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
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