ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Mary Katherine Connelly was raised in Belleville, New Jersey, ten miles west of New York City.  Her formal education began in 1978 at Rhode Island School of Design Pre-college Summer Studio Program followed by her BFA studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.  While in college, Mary worked as a summer intern at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.  After receiving her BFA in painting in 1983, Connelly relocated to Washington.  During the artist’s fifteen years in DC, her paintings were exhibited in many solo and selected regional group exhibitions.  Mary also worked as a mural artist creating site-specific paintings.  Her work was commissioned by Jeffery Buben, Chef/Owner of Vidalia’s, in Washington, DC and by the Quantum Corporation for restaurant properties in Memphis, Tennessee and Miami, Florida.   In 1998 Mary returned to graduate school and earned her MFA in Painting from Indiana University in Bloomington.  Following the completion of her masters, the artist was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University (2000-02).  Mary’s work was awarded “Curator’s Choice Award” in 2001 and “GVSU Purchase Award” at the Muskegon Museum of Art, 73rd and 74^th Regional, in Muskegon Michigan.  Her paintings are included in the permanent collection at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI and The University of Arts and Science, Chickasaw, OK.   The artist currently resides in Colorado and is an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at University of Colorado at Denver.  Connelly recently exhibited in a two-person show at O’Sullivan Art Center, at Regis University in Denver in March 2004.  Mary is represented by First Street Gallery in New York City and will exhibit at the Chelsea gallery in a solo show in June 2005.