MARY ANN LEFF
ART
ABOUT
Mary Ann Leff was born, raised, and educated in Pittsburgh, PA, a city though nurturing and culturally rich, seemed to her to have a very limited color pallette dominated by its gray, overcast skies. Her box of 24 Venus Colored Pencils told her there was a more colorful and light-filled world than the one in which she was living. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University School of Fine Arts and moved to California. There, steeped in a love for Monet, Matisse, Dubuffet, Stella, and Diebenkorn, strongly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, surrounded by the vastness of the Pacific Ocean and the beauty of the California landscape, her work began exploding with color.
Living in the Bay Area since the 1970’s, Mary Ann has been deeply engaged in the practice of painting, drawing and printmaking while also being interested in the study of psychology and the practice of psychotherapy. She sees parallels between both aspects of her professional work. In both--one verbal, one nonverbal—she digs deep, uncovers, reveals some of what is hidden, and allows what is not yet understood to emerge gradually. In both, she respects and sets boundaries, finds hidden meaning, focuses on connection and relationships, and recognizes and embraces the power of change. Just as change in one person influences and impacts others, an unexpected bit of color or a single gestural mark impacts her pieces in powerful ways. The deep layers, glossy surfaces, and recent use of metallic paint can be seen as mirrors connecting artist and viewer.
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Over her long career, her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, art fairs and in publications.
Why do I make art?
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Joan Mitchell said that “it must be a kind of a sickness.”
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It does feel a little like a sickness when I feel the almost compulsive need to be in my studio, to keep working and working until some sense of satisfaction finally lets me relax. I relate very much to what the psychoanalyst, D. W. Winnicott, said about artists. He described us as people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide, to want to have ourselves and our art be seen and acknowledged, while simultaneously yearning to remain hidden in order to be able to produce the very sparks of creativity that define our work and make it what it is.
RESUME
EDUCATION
Carnegie-Mellon University, School of Fine Art, Pittsburgh, PA
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ART FAIRS
Red Dot Miami, exhibiting with and represented by Jen Tough Gallery, December 2023
Art San Diego, exhibiting with and represented by Jen Tough Gallery, November 2023
Santa Fe Art Fair, exhibiting with and represented by Jen Tough Gallery, July 2023
Art Expo New York, exhibiting with and represented by Jen Tough Gallery, March 2023
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AWARDS
Second Place, "Seen and Imagined," Route One Gallery, 2023
Finalist Award, Circle Quarterly Art Review Magazine, Circle Foundation for the Arts, 2021
Coordinators’ Prize, Juried Annual, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, 2010
Jurors’ Prize, Juried Annual Works on Paper, Berkeley Art Center 1994
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ONE PERSON SHOWS
“Shiny Bits,” Avenue Gallery, San Francisco, 2016
“Veiled Discretion,” Avenue Gallery, San Francisco, 2015
“Abstract Paintings,” Highland Partners, Oakland 2014
“Mary Ann Leff: Abstract Paintings,” 201 California Street, San Francisco, curated by
William Torophy, 2011
GROUP SHOWS
“Driven To Abstraction,” Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA, juried by Carl Heyward, 2025
“Beyond the Frame: A Celebration of Large-Scale Work,” invited show, Gray Loft Gallery, 2025
"Exploring Monochromatic Art," Arts Benicia, 2024
"Home," The Drawing Room, San Francisco, 2024
"Collective Artists Show," Jen Tough Gallery, 2023
“Fresh Art,” Marin Society of Artists, juried virtual show, juried by Donna Seager, 2023
"Abstract Expressions," Red Bluff Art Gallery, 2023
"Seen and Imagined," Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, CA , 2nd place prize,
juried by Jeremy Morgan, 2023
“Small Works,” Art Works Downtown, San Rafael, CA 2023
“In the Abstract,” San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center, virtual juried show, 2022
“Still Life,” Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA, 2022
“The Love Show,” 10th Anniversary Invitational at Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, 2022
“Small Works,” Art Works Downtown, San Rafael, CA 2021
“Fresh Art,” Marin Society of Artists, juried virtual show, 2021
“Summer Salon” Gray Loft Gallery, invited virtual show, 2020
Cabrillo Gallery, invited virtual show, 2020
“2020: Artists Vision,” Marin Society of Artists, juried virtual 2020
Art in the Time of Corona: A global Art Project, virtual show, 2020
“2020 Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Challenging Times,” Virtual Show
“Exquisite Little Things,” Invitational at Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA 2018
Room Art Gallery, Mill Valley, CA, 2018
“Tangible Abstractions,” Three person invited show, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA 2017
“Fire and Water: A Juried Show,” juried by Donna Seager, ArtWorks Downtown, San Rafael, CA 2015
“Crossing Over: A Pop-Up Exhibition,” Curated by Courtney Norris, San Francisco, CA 2015
“Falling: A pop-Up Exhibition,” Curated by Courtney Norris, San Francisco, 2015
Members Show at The Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley 2015
“Array,” at The Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley 2013
“Circles: Interior/Exterior,” Invitational show at Leanne B. Roberts Center Gallery, San Francisco 2012
“Seasons of Water: Contemporary Paintings by Sixteen Bay Area Artists,” Juried show at Art at The Cheese Factory, Sausalito, CA 2011
Juried Annual, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, juried by Chester Arnold, Sebastopol, 2010
“3rd Annual California Centered: Printmaking,” juried by Jamie Brzezinski, Merced County Arts Council, Merced, 2009
“Ink and Clay,” Kellog University Art Gallery, Cal State Poly University, Pomona, juried by Carolyn Peter 2009
“The Subject is Color,” The Art Foundry Gallery, Sacramento, 2008
ProArts Juried Annual, juried by Laura Hoptman, senior curator of the New Museum, NY, Oakland, 2008
Two Person Show, at 525 MARKET STREET, San Francisco, 2007
Members’ Show at the Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, 2007
“Impressive Impressions: A Juried Exhibit of Bay Area Printmaking,” Market Street Gallery, San Francisco, 2006
“Adjectives of Art: A Printmaking Show,” at the CFA Gallery, San Anselmo, CA 2006
Spring Show at Mad River Post, San Francisco, 2006
Members’ Show at the Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, 2004
“Works on Paper, A National Juried Show,” juried by Deborah Klochko, Tim Taylor, Valerie Wade, Berkeley Art Center Berkeley, 1994
“Art and Movement,” at the University of California, Berkeley, 1978
Womanspace Gallery, Berkeley, 1976
Kingpitcher Gallery, gallery artist, Pittsburgh, PA, 1973-1980
Dirosha Pira Gallery, gallery artist, Palm Springs, CA, 1976-1978
Sergio O’Cadiz Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA 1972 to 1975
Velar Gallery, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 1971
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PUBLICATIONS
"Contemporary Artist Magazine," Spring 2023
"Contemporary Artist Magazine," Autumn 2023
“Artists of the Bay Area,” Jen Tough Gallery, 2022
"Circle Quarterly Art Review Magazine," Circle Foundation for the Arts, 2021
“Art Spy: Mary Ann Leff, Pearls Before Realtors, Paintings in Piedmont,” The Piedmont Patch, 2013
​“Multicultural Encounters,” Cover Art, Japanese Edition, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 2004
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MEMBERSHIPS
Global Art Project
Artist Alliance
Jen Tough Gallery 2023 Artist Collective
The Berkeley Art Center
O'Hanlon Center For the Arts