Artist Registry
The White Columns Curated Artist Registry is an online platform for emerging and under-recognized artists to share images and information about their respective practices. The Registry seeks to create a context for artists who have yet to benefit from wider critical, curatorial or commercial support. To be eligible, artists cannot be affiliated with a commercial gallery in New York City.
To apply to the Registry, click here. Join our mailing list here to receive our open call announcement and other programming updates. For any further questions about the Registry, please contact us at registry@whitecolumns.org.
RESUME
MARA CLAWSON
BIO: Mara is a self-taught artist who currently resides and works in her Bethesda, Maryland studio. Mara’s artwork is driven by her desire to express herself and connect to others. From the age of 12, Mara began painting visual stories using soft pastels while attending special education schools and summer camps in Maryland. As Mara says, ‘art makes me happy to be who I am and gives me lots of courage.’
Mara Clawson was born in 1992 on a U.S. Army base in Seoul, South Korea. Mara has Familial Dysautonomia, a neurogenetic disorder that affects her autonomic and sensory nervous systems.
Sensing how colors mix and combine is at the core of Mara’s artwork and process. Mara layers different colors and patterns of oil pastels, which creates her distinct mark making. Closer inspection of her oil pastel or acrylic paintings reveals a patchwork of textural arrangements and intricate abstract compositions. Mara describes her process as follows: ‘You just need to make sense of what the picture tells you what it needs; it’s like a puzzle. It can be tricky.’ Mara says that she knows an artwork is finished “when colors get along.”
Website: MaraClawson.com Instagram: @WhenColorsGetAlong
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Silo6776, New Hope PA
2020 Bodzin Art Gallery, Fairfax VA
2019 Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland OH (Visiting Artist)
2016 Goldman Art Gallery, Rockville MD
2005 Adat Shalom Synagogue, Bethesda MD
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Connections, Art Center of the Bluegrass, Danville KY
2021 37th Juried Open Exhibition, Visual Arts Alliance, Houston TX, curated by Harry Cooper
2021 30 Under 30: 2021, Viridian Artists, New York NY
2021 Works on Paper 2021, Long Beach Island Foundation, Long Beach Island NJ, curated by Lanka Tattersall (catalogue)
2020 ReelArt, The Center for Art and Photography at Celebration Company, Houston TX
2020 Works on Paper 2020, Long Beach Island Foundation, Long Beach Island NJ, curated by Sarah Suzuki (catalogue)
2020 Sea of Change, Virginia Beach Art Center, Virginia Beach VA, curated by Gary Ryan
2019 Tearless, Allouche Gallery, New York NY, curated by Kristina Hagman
2017 Alchemical Vessels 2017, Joan Hisoaka Healing Arts Gallery, Washington DC (catalogue)
2017 Bloom, Sturt Haaga Gallery, La Canada CA
2016 (Re)Invention (traveling exhibition of 2016 Emerging Young Artists with Disabilities award winners, Kennedy Center/VSA (catalogue): The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC; Dedalus Foundation, Brooklyn NY; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale AZ; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga TN; Dyer Arts Center / Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY; Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC; and Volkswagen Group of America Headquarters, Herndon VA
2016 Alimento, Shatto Chapel at First Congregational Church, Los Angeles CA, curated by Joan Agajanian Quinn
2007-2023 Outsider Art Inside the Beltway/Outside Forces, Art Enables Gallery, Washington DC
Selected Bibliography
Living Art. Directed by David Rochkind, documentary film featuring Mara Clawson, Ground Media, 2018. https://vimeo.com/479811957
Pat Johnson, “LBIF: Works on Paper A Litmus Test of Pain During COVID Times,” The Sandpaper, June 16, 2021.
Derrick Shore, Interview, KPRC TV, Houston TX, February 13, 2020.
Heather Kansteiner, “Artist Mara Clawson spreads message of hope and courage through ‘ReelArt’ exhibit,” Click2Houston: Houston Life (blog). February 13, 2020.
Andrea Kronzek, “Former Camp JCC Camper Comes Full-Circle with Her Art,” Bender JCC Center Scene. November 2016.
Mara Clawson, Adventures of Moses (1st ed.) Bethesda, MD 2016.
Beth Panitz, “Mara Clawson-Her Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words,” BabagaNewz. February 2006.
Grants and Residency
2024 Pollock Krasner Foundation Award for Byrdcliffe Artist-in-Residence Program, Woodstock NY
2024 Maryland State Arts Council Professional Development Opportunity Grant
2023 NEA Commission: Connections, Art Center of the Bluegrass, Danville KY
2017-2020 Reach Independence through Self-Employment (RISE), Maryland Division of Rehabilitation Services, Baltimore MD