Phelan, Mary

Foundations, Life Drawing

Mary H. Phelan is an award-winning artist whose paintings have been exhibited widely in the Midwest, as well as in New York and Mexico. She currently serves as Chairperson for the Life Drawing Department and teaches Life Drawing and Advanced Life Drawing.

Recent illustrations have been featured in The Urban Tree Book (Times Books/Random House, 2000) The Chicago Tribune and Playboy magazine. Other clients include the Peggy Notebarte Nature Museum in Chicago, the Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the American Library Association. Among the many private and public collections which feature commissioned works by Ms. Phelan are the University of Illinois and Library of Congress.

She received the Purchase Award from Elgin Community College (Elgin, Illinois) in 1991, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant in 1976 and 1977, and the Curatorial Committee’s Special Mention for Excellence from the Stage Gallery (New York) in 1998.

Ms. Phelan began her studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1971. She received her A.F.A at the American Academy of Art and a B.A. from Northeastern University in Chicago. She has also studied at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Recent Solo Exhibitions:

• Renner Gallery, Blackburn University
  (Carlinville, Illinois)
• “Place Markers” at Almquist Gallery
  (Winnetka, Illinois)
• Freeport Art Museum (Freeport, Illinois)
• Irish American Heritage Center (Chicago, Illinois)
• Sulzer Regional Library (Chicago, Illinois)

Recent Group Exhibitions:

• “Valdosta Works on Paper XII” (Valdosta, Georgia)
• “Abstraction ‘97” at Stage gallery
  (Merrick, New York)
• “Bi-State Competition,” Davenport Museum of Art (Davenport, Iowa)
• “Neolandscape” at Union Street Gallery
  (Chicago Heights, Illinois)
• Chicago Printmakers Collaborative
  (Chicago, Illinois)

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