Mary Tsiongas

Biography
Mary Tsiongas is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work addresses human relationships to technology and the natural environment. In her recent new media piece, Fish Out of Water, Mary Tsiongas worked with local experts on the ecology of the silvery minnows found in the Rio Grande. Her quiet meditative new media piece conveys the arduous fight for survival that the minnow has faced over recent decades.

Born in Greece and now based in Albuquerque, NM, Mary Tsiongas has performed, exhibited, and lectured extensively for the past fifteen years. Her work has been shown in over fifty solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including ARTSPACE, Sydney, Australia; NOGA Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; and the Lincoln Center, New York. She is currently a Professor of Experimental Art and Technology in the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico.

The work I have done in the last ten years has attempted to explore my (and our) changing relationship to the natural world.  I use ‘natural world’ to refer to the naturally occurring landscape, and to it’s apotheosis in wilderness; and as a term of opposition to the increasingly unnatural suburban/urban/engineered/built environments I find myself in.  My choice of subject hinges on my deep (and deepening) concern about how we as humans are impacting the natural world; and on my interest in how these impacts are affecting me (and us), personally and globally, in return. This underlying concern interacts with other longtime fascinations such as metaphysics, games, chance, memory and simple electronic technology.  -Mary Tsiongas

Education
MFA California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
BFA Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA

Solo Exhibitions
2017
Repurpose/Revision/Reconstruction (with Bruce Davis), Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2013
The Likenesses of Light, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Alcove 12.9, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

2012
Currents 2012, Muñoz Wayman Foyer and Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM

2010
Time Lapses, Center For Art and Theatre, Georgia Southern University, GA

2008
Moving Target, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2005
When the Hunter Gathers, Thomas Welton Gallery, Stanford University, CA

2003
When the Hunter Gathers, University Art Museum, UNM, Albuquerque, NM

1999
genius loci, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1997
Post-Hypnotic Suggestions, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

1996
Thought and Remembrance, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1994
The Magician, Artist’s Television Access, San Francisco, CA

1991
Vespers, Mobius, Boston, MA

1987
Elemental Residue, Alchemie Gallery, Boston, MA

Group Exhibitions
2021
Made in ABQ, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2019
Walking Practices, Walking Art, Walking Body, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande: Contemporary Artists Respond, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM

2017
Fourth Biennial Juried Alumni Exhibition/Habitat(ion), Mass College of Art, Boston, MA

2016
Unstructured Merriment, 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
Out of Many, One: New Work by Studio Faculty, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Electricity Can Kill You: Currents 2016, CFAD Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2015
Women to Watch 2015: Organic Matters, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Coordinates, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2013
All The Time in The World, 2 person show with Gail Wight, The Clay Center, Charleston, WV
All The Time in The World, 2 person show with Gail Wight, McColl Center, Charlotte, NC

2012
Spread 3.0, Finalist for Funding, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
The Transformative Surface, UNM Art Museum, ISEA Partner, Albuquerque, NM
An Inquisitive Eye, Seeing Into Prints, UNM Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Thinking New Mexico: A Centennial Exhibition, NM State University Art Gallery, Las Cruces, NM

2011
505, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2010
ShadowShop, Stephanie Syjuco’s project at SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
There’s a way in which…., PlaySpace, San Francisco, CA
Shadows, SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM
Albuquerque Now, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM

2009
Landscape and Memory, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI
Sculpture as Analogy, SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM

2008
Moving Target, UNM Art Museum, University Art Museum, UNM, Albuquerque, NM
Land Arts of the American Southwest, AC2 Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2007
The Art and Artifice of Science, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Green, 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, NM

2006
A Darkened Line, Fine Arts Gallery, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Photography and Science, Gallery 303, Georgia Southern University, GA

2005
Sculptural Information, Seeing Gallery, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA
Evidence is Everywhere, SF Cinematheque, San Francisco, CA
Looking Back At The Present: Photography and New Media, University Art Museum UNM, Albuquerque, NM
Embodied Seven Studies in Video, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2004
Beyond Words: Artists and the Book, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Through The Night Softly, The Walls, Albuquerque, NM
Lineaments of Gratified Desire, Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2003
Lincoln Center Outdoors, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Point of Departure: contemporary photographic explorations, Magnifico, Albuquerque, NM
inauguration show, For-site Foundation, Nevada City, CA

2002
Learning to Love You More, Web show, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

2001
Multiple Personalities, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Interact, Moxie Building, San Francisco, CA
Behind the Screen, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA

2000
Light Fantastic, Walter/McBean Gallery, SFAI. San Francisco, CA
Small Objects for Sound & Light, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, CA

1999
Corporeal Sky, ARTSPACE, Sidney, Australia
Nightfall, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Spirituality-Otherwordliness, Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Mi Casa Es Su Casa, NOGA Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel

1998
Technical Poetics, Sherry Frumkin Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Plugged In, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
pFormative Acts, Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Going Cimmaron, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
Translucence, Art Source, Transamerica Building, San Francisco, CA
In Over Our Heads: The Image of Water in Contemporary Art, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Landscape and Memory, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1997
Anima Mundi, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
Riding With Closed Eyes, The Lab, San Francisco, CA

1996
New York, Haines Gallery New York, Brooklyn Heights, NY
Natural Histories, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
Bounty, Fairfield Center Gallery, Fairfield, CA
Mortal Coil: Mourning Becomes Electronic, Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, Porter College, U.C. Santa Cruz, CA

1995
Counterspace, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1994
Issues of Image, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Articulated Silences, Victoria Room, San Francisco, CA
Projected Gesture, Cinematheque/ATA, San Francisco, CA
Vigil, Gallery Here, Oakland, CA
Meraki, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
Old Wives Tales, Centro Cultural Santo Domingo, Mexico City, Mexico

Collections
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA

Awards
2019
Walking Practices, Walking Art, Walking Body, University of Western Macedonia, Greece
2017
Artist Residency, UCROSS Foundation, Clearmont, WY
2015
Women to Watch 2015, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
2013
Residency and workshop with local high school students, McColl Center, Charlotte, NC
2011
University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts Creative Work Grant
2010
PLAND Residency: Topographia Collective with L. Montgomery C. Harris,
J. Lovell
2008
University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts Creative Work Grant
2007
University of New Mexico, Research Allocations Committee Large RAC grant
2005
P.L.A.C.E Grant for “The Pitch” Advanced Projects in Electronic Arts
2004
University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts Creative Work Grant
2003
University of New Mexico, Research Allocations Committee RAC grant
2001 University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts Creative Work Grant
1997
Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist in residence, Sausalito, CA
1995
Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), NEA Regional Fellowship, Sculpture

Press
2021
Nancy Zastudil, Review: Thirtieth Anniversary Show at Richard Levy Gallery, Southwest Contemporary, June 18
Maria Manuela, Five Things to Do This Weekend, New Mexico Magazine, June 18

2015
Wes Pulkka, Local art show includes pinhole photos by former UNM professor, Venue, Albuquerque Journal, May 3

2013
Diane Armitage, The Likenesses of Light: Mary Tsiongas, THE Magazine, December/January
Grace Cote, Time is on their side, Creative Loafing Charlotte, March 8
UNC TV Features the Center, McColl Center for Visual Art Blog, April 25

2012
Rob DeWalt, Pasatiempo, September 7

2011
Jon Carver, 505, THE Magazine, May

2009
LAND/ART New Mexico, SCA Contemporary Art

2007
Jon Carver, Review Santa Fe, Art Papers, May

2005
Rebecca Wallace, Arts & Entertainment, Palo Alto Weekly, December
Guy Cross, The Universe of Mary Tsiongas, THE Magazine
Scott MacLeod, Mary Tsiongas: On Leaving the Bay Area, Stretcher.Org, August

2001
Kenneth Baker, Profiling Bay Area new-media artists, San Francisco Chronicle, June 3

1998
Terri Cohn, Light as Medium, Art Week, October

1997
Kathleen Shields, Parallaxis: Fifty-five Points to View, A Conversation with Lucy R. Lippard and Rina Swentzell, pp. 35, 131

1996
West, A publication of the San Francisco Art Institute, Winter
Holly Blake, Witness, Weems, McCarthy, Tsiongas, p. 8
Kenneth Baker, Galleries, San Francisco Chronicle, December 19

1995
Water Catalog for exhibition at Vacaville Museum,Vacaville, CA

Press Release
2021 Made in ABQ at Richard Levy Gallery
2017 Repurpose/Revision/Reconstruction  at Richard Levy Gallery
2016 Unstructured Merriment at Richard Levy Gallery
2015 Coordinates at Richard Levy Gallery
2013 The Likeness of Light at Richard Levy Gallery
2011 505 at Richard Levy Gallery