Line is fundamental in my art. In my work, squiggles - a line that curls and loops in an irregular way - are formed by lines which reference the basics in art. I use the squiggle as a motif because it is a mark that everyone is familiar with and, yet, each one is distinct. Through marks and lines, I strive to uncover the unfamiliar with the commonplace. My work takes advantage of our pervasive desire to make sense of the world around us. The affinity for interpreting abstract marks is intuitive, especially when context is limited or removed. The micro elements attach onto one another creating new forms. The intimate vignettes come together as a new space mirroring how society now gets it’s information in the age of social media. The idea of random interaction is enhanced by my materials, fluid acrylics and liquid watercolors. Balancing the ambiguity is the rote drawing and marks. By repetitively painting, printing, and drawing layers of mixed media, I create elemental environments and atmospheres that are unnamed spaces, whose interpretations are relative to the experiences of the viewer.
Whether practicing cursive in school or doodling at a meeting, all of us have a personal history with marks on paper. It is this personal history that challenges my viewers to interpret lines and colors presented to them and their juxtaposition showing varying, intimate realities and interpretations
BIO
Megan Maher is a mixed media artist and curator whose work explores the interactions between line, color, and materials. The squiggle is a recurring motif in her work. Maher grew up in Kentucky and Indiana, enjoying both city and country life. She received her BFA from Indiana University and moved to Washington, DC, to earn her MFA from American University. After graduating, she stayed in the DC area teaching and producing art. She has shown both internationally and nationally, including exhibits at Arlington Arts Center, McLean Project for the Arts and Centro Arti Visive and was a member of the 2014-2016 DC Arts Center’s Sparkplug Collective. This group had their third exhibit, Selfie: Me, Myself and Us at Flashpoint Gallery in 2017. Her most recent curatorial project was Uncommon Goods at the Willow Street Gallery in 2020. Past residencies have included the Vermont Studio Center and Chautauqua School of Art.
RESUME
Education 1994 M.F.A. The American University, Washington, DC 1991 B.F.A. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Solo and Two Person Exhibitions 2024Candy Coated, (solo) Artists and Makers Studios, Rockville, MD Maher’s Mark, Nano Gallery, (solo) DC Arts Center, Washington, DC 2019 Creation: Collision of Art and Science, West End Plastic Surgery, Washington, DC 2018Coloring with Lines, (solo) Hera Hub, Washington, DC Delineated, (solo) Via Umbria Gallery, Washington, DC 2015Loop: Megan Maher Prints (solo), Electric Maid, Washington, DC 1994Seeing with Shapes, Watkins Gallery, Washington, DC 1993 Across a Generation, Huff Gallery, Louisville, KY
Selected Group Exhibitions 2024 In the Neighborhood: Art on Howard, Pazo Fine Art, Kensington, MD Fun, Otis Street Projects, Mt Rainier, MD 2023 Repetition, Ruby Projets, Fairfax, VA Scribbles, Carter Burden Gallery, New York, NY It’s the Little Things, Girls Who Paint, Kensington, MD 2022ArtVide 3, Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington, DC 2021 Hope & Possibility, Tools For Education Benefit Exhibition curated by Bridgette Mayer, Philadelphia, PA 1460 Wallmountables, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC 2020Latela Curatorial x Artsy: Women in the Arts Online Exhibit, Washington, DC Shift, Mclean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA By The People x Monochrome Collective Virtual Art Fair, Washington, DC 2019 Flashback, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC VidArt: Art Auction, Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC Tri-Annual MD Artist Registry Juried Exhibit, Maryland Arts Place, Baltimore, MD Crossing Borders, BWI, Airport, MD 2018 Sensory Engagement Lab Show and Tell, VisArts, Rockville, MD Bright Future, Studio Gallery, Washington, DC Regional Juried Show, Hill Center, Washington, DC Women in Abstraction, Public Playhouse, Riverdale, MD 2017 Art Basel Pop Up: Modern Art Perfected, Decorus Realty, Sunny Isles Beach, Fl Zeitgeist IV: Preconceptual, Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC Selfie: Me, Myself and Us, Flashpoint Gallery, Washington, DC 2016 Power (I Know It When…), DC Arts Center, Washington, DC Collected and Layered: Reinventing Landscapes, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC 2015 Hickok Cole Art Night, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC Into the Light, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC Strictly Paining 10, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA Transformation, Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD DIS/SATISFACTION: Permission to Rewrite History, It’s Personal, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC 2014 8 x 8, Washington Project for the Arts @ (e)merge Art Fair, Washington, DC Colorscapes, Takoma Park Community Center, Takoma Park, MD Transformations, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA 2013Half and Half, Cade Gallery, Anne Arundel Community College, Arnold, MD 8 x 8, Washington Project for the Arts @ (e)merge Art Fair, Washington, DC Entropy, Metropolitan Art Project, Fairfax, VA Less is More, Mitchell Gallery, Annapolis, MD 2012 Re-launched, Willow Street Gallery, Washington, DC Abstract Visions, Betty Mae Kramer Gallery, Silver Spring, MD Looped, Artomatic, Crystal City, VA 1989 Outsiders, Centro Arti Visive, Perugia, Italy
Work is in the collections of Indiana University, Corcoran College of Art + Design and private collections in the US, Canada and New Zealand. Grant/Fellowships 2023 Professional Development Opportunity Grant, Maryland State Arts Council, MD 2021, 2022 Covid-19 General Operating Support Emergency Grant Award for Artists and Scholars, Montgomery County Council of At and Humanities, Silver Spring, MD 2020 Individual Artists and Scholars Grant, Montgomery County Council of Art and Humanities, Silver Spring, MD 2014 - 2016Sparkplug Collective, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, D.C. 1992 – 1994 Graduate Fellowship, The American University, Washington, DC 1993Residency Fellowship, Vermont Studio School, Johnson, VT 1991Residency Fellowship, Chautauqua School of Art, Chautauqua, NY
Residencies 2018 Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, ME 1993Vermont Studio School, Johnson, VT 1990Chautauqua School of Art, Chautauqua, NY Honors/Publications 2018Honorable Mention, Regional Juried Show, Hill Center, Washington, DC 2017 “Zeitgeist IV: Preconceptual” exhibition catalog, Hillyer Art Space, Washington, DC 2017 Panel Discussion, Selfie: Me, Myself, and US, Luce Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Sadie Dingfelder “For starters, there’s no duck face” The Washington Post Express and The Washington Post, 2017 2016Mark Jenkins, “In the galleries: Paintings both ephemeral and vivid,” The Washington Post, 2016 “Power (I Know It When…)” exhibition catalog, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC, 2016 Panel Discussion, Power (I Know It When…), District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC Artist Talk, Collected and Layered: Reinventing Landscapes/Mei Mei Chang/Megan Maher/Rebecca Rivas Rogers, Willow Street Gallery, Washington DC 2015 Artist Talk, Dis/Satisfaction: Permission to Rewrite History, It’s Personal, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC Mark Jenkins, “In the galleries: Rooted in nature but not always natural,” The Washington Post, 2015 “Dis/Satisfaction: Permission to Rewrite History, It’s Personal,” exhibition catalog, District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington DC, 2015 1994 "Eight in Dialogue,” exhibition catalog, Watkins Art Gallery, American University; Vermont Studio Center, 1994. Essay by Don Kimes.