Mary Sprague, longtime Professor Emeritus of Art and
Art History at Meramec Community College, is a printer,
painter and ceramic artist. After completing her Bachelor
and Master of Arts at Stanford University in California, she
moved with her husband and four children to the Midwest
and has been immersed in the St. Louis art community for
the past forty years. Her persona has been described as,“a lively and openhanded mix of infection friendliness”
and “a woman who lives her life head on with gusto and
good humor” (James Yood, on Mary Sprague). With this
in mind, Sprague’s expansive repertoire of style and content
has included notable studies of mysterious domestic
interiors, vibrant equestrians, and currently chickens with
a certain extra amount of cluck. “Sprague’s big drawings,
some are more than six feet tall, do what a lot of largescale
drawings from nature fail to do – they preserve the
spontaneity of small life sketches while offering up magnified
views of beautiful natural forms” (Margaret Hawkins,
Chicago Sun Times). Trained in an era of abstract expressionism,
Sprague has been able to combine color and form
from multiple eras to suit her own tastes and unique almost
caricatures of domestic American scenery.
Recent Exhibitions
2010 “La Palabra” Maryville University, St Louis, MO
2009 “Tree Show” Blue Seed, Savanac Lake, NY
2008 Animals: Them and Us, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND
2008 Kreg Kallenberger and Mary Sprague, Duane Reed Gallery, Saint Louis, MO
2007 Mary Sprague, Duane Reed Gallery, Saint Louis, MO (solo)
2002 Art Cache. Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO
1983 currents 21: MARY SPRAGUE, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO (solo)
Selected Collections
Boatman’s Bank, St. Louis MO
Cap Industries, Chicago IL
City Museum, St. Louis MO
CPI Corporation, St. Louis MO
First National Bank of Chicago
Governor’s Mansion, Jefferson City MO
Kamm Teapot Museum, Sparta NC
Las Vegas Art Museum
Mark Twain BancShares,Inc.; St. Louis MO
Missouri Historical Society
Mitchell Museum at Cedarhurst, Mount Vernon IL
Municipal Art Museum, Suwa City, Japan
Nanjing Museum of Art, Nanjing, China
St. Louis Art Museum
Springfield Art Museum, Springfield MO |
