MARY ANN PETERS is a multi-disciplined artist who makes socially and conceptually responsive work tied to the Middle East. Using the unique perspective of a second generation Arab American, she employs a distanced but personal filter to understand, interpret and highlight dismissed or undermined diaspora narratives. Her work is research driven and employs painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. She has been a practicing artist and an artist activist for four decades. Her awards include the McLaughlin Foundation Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts (2022), the Artist Trust Visual Art Fellowship (2021), the Camargo Fellowship in Cassis, France (2017), the BAR residency in Beirut, Lebanon (2016), the Stranger Genius Award in Visual Art (2015), the Art Matters Foundation research grant (2013), the MacDowell Colony Pollock/Krasner Fellowship (2011), the Civita Institute Fellowship (2004) and the Behnke Foundation Neddy Award in Painting (2000). She has been an advisor for multiple arts organizations in the Northwest and nationally. She is a current board member of the performance venue On the Boards, and former board member and president of NCFE (National Campaign for Freedom of Expression) a decade long commitment focused on First Amendment rights for artists. She lives and works in Seattle, Washington.
“I work from the premise that images are never neutral and that they sustain layered meaning from the inception of an idea to the completed piece. Historical narratives, architecture, science, personal heritage, politics and questions of perception have all played a part in my thinking over the years. I look for seemingly disparate elements that can coalesce and redefine a topic. I have traveled extensively, most frequently in non-Western cultures. Traveling has informed my understanding of the global roots of aesthetics. It consistently defines for me those social practices that provide outlines for cultural inquiry, including which ethical questions should be considered or supported. In the end I work to the afterimage of the viewer and the potential discourse that might ensue. The kiss of death for any artist is the work that no one can remember.”