Sarah McEneaney (born January 31, 1955 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

) is an American artist, painter, and community activist who lives and works in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Working primarily in

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

her paintings are characterized by their autobiographical content, detailed brushwork, and brilliant color. McEneaney's intimate subject matter focuses on daily scenes from her home, studio, travels, and neighborhood. Her work is included in public collections such as the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

and she has received numerous grants and awards. McEneaney is also active in community work, including the formation of the Callowhill Neighborhood Association in 2001, and the co-founding of the Reading Viaduct Project in 2003.

Career

McEneaney is represented by Locks Gallery in Philadelphia and Tibor de Nagy gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 2004, the

Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia The Institute of Contemporary Art or ICA is a contemporary art museum in Philadelphia. The museum is associated with the University of Pennsylvania, and is located on its campus. The Institute is one of the country's leading museums dedicated to e ...

held a mid-career exhibition of her work accompanied by a fully illustrated publication authored by Chief Curator Ingrid Schaffner. Individual works were also discussed by 11 other contributors, including Sarah McEneaney, art historian and former

curator Susan Rosenberg, artist

Sheila Pepe Sheila Pepe (born Morristown, New Jersey, 1959) is an artist and educator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She is a prominent figure as a lesbian cross-disciplinary artist, whose work employs conceptualism, surrealism, and craft to addres ...

, and poet

Nathalie Anderson Nathalie F. Anderson (born 1948) is an American poet and librettist. She is a 1993 Pew Fellow, and author of several books of poetry: ''Following Fred Astaire'', ''Crawlers'', ''Quiver'', ''Held and Firmly Bound'' (a chapbook), and ''Stain''. In c ...

. Her work is in numerous public collections including the

, Mills College Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Woodmere Art Museum, Bryn Mawr College, Nueberger Museum at SUNY Purchase, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.

Select exhibitions

*''Studio Living'' (2014) Tibor de Nagy, New York, solo exhibition *"First Look", (2013)

*''Trestletown'', (2013) Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, solo exhibition *"The Female Gaze: Women Artists Making Their World", The

Linda Lee Alter Linda Lee Alter (born 1939) is an American visual artist who is primarily known as an art collector and philanthropist. In 2010 Alter donated five hundred artworks by American female artists to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philade ...

Collection of Art by Women, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts *''Sarah McEneaney'', (2004)

, solo exhibition *"Memory and Mastery" (2000), List Gallery at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, solo exhibition *"Sarah McEneaney" (1990) Morris Gallery at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, solo exhibition

Recognition

In 1993 McEneaney received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and has received subsequent grants in 2001, 2002, and 2008. In 2000, she received a prestigious Painters & Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. In 2007 she was honored by her alma mater with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Community work

McEneaney’s community work includes forming the Callowhill Neighborhood Association in Philadelphia with neighbors in 2001, and co-founded the Reading Viaduct Project in 2003. The goal of the project was to preserve and renovate the Reading Viaduct, a stretch of abandoned railway that carried trains into Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal for almost 100 years, creating the neighborhood’s first park. Reading Viaduct Project merged with Friends of the Rail Park in late 2013 to form a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organization advocating for the park. McEneaney continues to act on their board of directors.

References

External links

Sarah McEneaney 2004 Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia ExhibitionSarah McEneaney on artnet"Beer with a Painter"
''Hyperallergic" interview 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:McEneaney, Sarah 1955 births Living people American women artists Artists from Philadelphia Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni 21st-century American women