Mary E Beierle

Mary Beierle grew up alongside the Los Angeles Mountains and has trekked throughout the mountains and glaciers of the American West. The trembling of the tectonic shifts in that rugged terrain and the visual imprint of that geology are major influences in her work. She merges images of the landscape with abstracted human forms to explore our relationship with the natural world. Her sculptures evoke a tapestry of ideas ranging from the mundane to the heroic. These ideas are explored through emerging and receding figures, glazing as subject and composition, and contrasts of scale - from miniature to massive, larger than life-sized, pieces. She is interested in creating an experience of form and space that the viewer may touch, peer into, and encounter from various perspectives.

Mary initially studied biopsychology and began her formal art studies after living in Europe and Asia. She received her MFA from California State University, Long Beach were she also received art/travel grants to study Alaskan Glaciers, Paleolithic cave drawings and sculpture, and art studies in Italy, Korea, and China. Mary’s art is in international public and private collections and has been exhibited in the United States and Europe including: The Fête Picasso, Vallauris, France; The American Museum of Ceramic Art, the Shoshana Wayne Gallery; the Saltzbrand Ceramic, Koblenz Germany; Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for the Arts and Crafts; the W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery; San Bernardino County Museum, and the Wignall Museum Gallery. She has received the Dan McGrath Award for Excellence in Art, the Art Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement, Purchase Award Ink and Clay 30, and the Beverly G. Alpay Art Award. She currently teaches 2D art and ceramics at Cypress and Chaffey College and is a Resident Artist at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA).

- https://www.marybeierle.com/about