Mary McCleary is Regent's Professor of Art Emeritus at Stephen F. Austin State University, where she taught from 1975 to 2005. Born in Houston, Texas in 1951, she received her B.F.A., cum laude in printmaking/drawing at Texas Christian University and her M.F.A. in graphics from the University of Oklahoma. Since 1970 she has participated in over 250 one-person and group exhibits in museums and galleries in 24 states, Mexico, and Russia. These venues include the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., MOBIA in New York City, the Grey Gallery at NYU, the Boston Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. She is also a recipient of a Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. Her work has been regularly reviewed or featured in the Houston Post, Houston Chronicle, Austin American Statesman, Dallas Morning News, and other Texas newspapers, as well as in national publications: Art in America, Art News, Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion, Art Papers, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Art Week, Artspace, Texas Homes, New American Paintings, and Contemporanea International Arts Magazine. McCleary’s work is in many public collections including those of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, the El Paso Museum of Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. Click here to download a PDF of her full resume.
For more about Mary McCleary, read these online articles: Double Room • Chron • The BioLogos Forum
• Mary McCleary has been named "Texas Artist of the Year" for 2011 by the Art League of Houston. Her one-person show at the Houston Art League is scheduled for September 2011. For information on the Art league Gala, click here.
• Gregory Wolfe's essay, Mary McCleary: Constructing Paradox is featured in his new book, Beauty Will Save the World.
• Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas just purchased Immigrant Ships for their permanent collection.
• McCleary will have work at the Houston Fine Art Fair, September 15-18, 2011 and the Texas Contemporary Art Fair in Houston , October 20-23, 2011.
• Several of Mary's collages can be seen at Gerald Peters Gallery, N.Y., in Connections," an exhibit of Texas artists in memory of Ted Pillsbury- Mar 24-Apr.29.
• Mary McCleary's one-person exhibit, "An Act of Faith: The Art of Mary McCleary," can be seen at the Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas, Jan 21 – April 21.
• Mary will be speaking at the ACT conference at Union University, Jackson, Tennessee, April 8 & 9, 2011.
• Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas recently acquired Mary McCleary's "The Falcon Cannot Hear the Falconer" (2008) for their permanent collection. Marquand Books will be publishing a catalogue of highlights of the Crystal Bridges collection in conjunction with the new museum's anticipated Fall 2011 inaugural exhibition.
• Mary's print, "Fallen, Fallen Light Renew," will be included in the exhibition Advancing Traditions: Twenty Years of Printmaking at Flatbed Press. The exhibit, organized by ExhibitsUSA, a division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, will travel for three years to venues across the U.S., beginning Nov. 27- Feb.3, 2011 at Austin Museum of Art.
• McCleary will have work in the exhibit, Obsessive Worlds, at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. October 15, 2011 – January 1, 2012.
• Mary McCleary is included in the new book, Texas Art: 70.2 Cm, published by Marquand Books and edited by Catherine Anspon. Photography by Everett Taasevigen.
• McCleary has joined the editorial board at Image Journal. She taught a collage class at the Image's Glen Workshop at St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM, August 1-8, 2010.
