ABOUT
An interviewer once asked the artist Joan Mitchell, “Why do artists make art?” Her answer was: “I don’t know…I think it’s a kind of sickness.”
I’ve lived with what Mitchell described my whole life. A restless discontent is always with me in the studio. I feel compelled to keep working, changing, digging deeper into the work and into myself. I experience a tension between a wish to stay hidden and a wish to be seen. As elements pop out and recede, as parts are exposed and parts are hidden, this struggle plays out in a visual form.
Educated at Carnegie-Mellon University, I was most inspired by Professor Robert Lepper and his two-semester studio class, “Individual and Social Analysis” that focused on community and personal memory as aspects of artistic expression. He encouraged me to develop this through abstraction.
This direction and encouragement allowed me to develop a two-fold career, one verbal, one non-verbal. In the study of psychology and the work of counseling I experienced the connection between emotion and expression.
My work as an artist deepened and became its own kind of emotional excavation and a wordless expression of what is otherwise resistant to articulation.
I work with several themes, intuitively trusting my hand and my brush. I create paintings with glossy, metallic and reflective surfaces that can act as mirrors, reflecting and connecting viewer and painter. I paint diptychs and compositions with two distinct, but related sides or parts to reflect and bridge divides, to demonstrate that more than one is often needed to create or enhance a whole. I use black because of its richness, depth, mystery and a foreshadowing. And the flashes of vivid color in the predominantly deep black fields of the series of paintings I've been calling “Little Black Dresses,” are like flashy accessories that brighten up, bring life to, and show off a classic and sophisticated black dress at the same time that they serve as points of light that insist on being seen, demanding that we see light, hope and beauty in a dark world.
RESUME
EDUCATION
Carnegie-Mellon University, School of Fine Art, Pittsburgh, PA
INVITED RESIDENCY
Global Art Project, Parabita, Italy, 2026
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
Fragmentos II, Global Art Project, Casa de Cultura, Madrid, Spain, September 2026
Fondazione Palmieri di Lecce, Lecce, Italy, May 2026
Palazzo Ferrari, Parabita, Italy, May 2026
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
AWARDS
Second Place, "Seen and Imagined," Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, 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
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
"Member Show," Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes Station, 2026
"Making Your Mark," Sebastopol Center For The Arts, juried by Mark Eames, 2026
“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
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
MEMBERSHIPS
Gallery Route One, Member Artist
Global Art Project
The Berkeley Art Center