Mary Snowden (born 1940) is an American painter and educator. She is known for works that use humor to explore issues of feminist identity and

consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...

Early life and education

Snowden was born in 1940 in

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...

. She received a BA degree from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, and a MFA degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Career

Snowden is perhaps best known for her works about the suburbs and motherhood. Starting in the mid-1990s Snowden's paintings utilized 1940s and 1950s advertising imagery, focusing on the products, images, and fashions of the era to humorously critique limitations in cultural ideas about gender and

homemaking Homemaking is mainly an American English, American and Canadian English, Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational ...

. Around 2010, she started used stitching to depict rural farm life. Snowden was the first female artist to win the SECA Art Award from the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

in 1974. Snowden is Professor Emeritus of Painting Drawing at the

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

. Snowden's notable past exhibitions have been at the

(1975), Gallery Henoch (1991), and the Braunstein/Quay Gallery (1997). Her work is in museum collections including the

Kemper Art Museum The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is an art museum located on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, within the university's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Founded in 1881 as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, it w ...

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, among others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snowden, Mary American women artists University of California, Berkeley alumni Brown University alumni 1940 births Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area People from Johnstown, Pennsylvania Living people