Maura Sheehan
{{Short description|American installation artist and sculptor}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2019}}
Maura Sheehan is an American installation artist and sculptor who works with unconventional materials. She is on the faculty of the BFA Fine Arts Department, School of Visual Arts New York.,{{Cite web|url=http://www.sva.edu/faculty/maura-sheehan|title=School of Visual Arts {{!}} SVA {{!}} New York City > Faculty|website=www.sva.edu|access-date=14 May 2019}} and the founder and director of the Manhattan Art Program,{{Cite web|url=http://stationmuseum.com/?page_id=3139|title=MAURA SHEEHAN – Station Museum of Contemporary Art|access-date=14 May 2019}} a non-profit educational organisation providing innovative art programs to disadvantaged communities in USA Ireland and North Africa.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mapworld.org/|title=Manhattan Art Program|website=mapworld.org|access-date=13 May 2019}}
Career
In 1980 Sheehan's work was in an exhibition of "Downtown Los Angeles Artists," organized by the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, anonymously placed in situ around the town Santa Barbara. Richard Ross described her art and that of Jon Peterson and Judith Simonian as 'participatory', one of the first uses of the term in relation to art. Ross wrote, "These artists bear the responsibility to the community. "{{Cite web|url=https://fillip.ca/content/what-is-a-participatory-practice|title=What Is a Participatory Practice? (David Goldenberg and Patricia Reed)|last=Fillip|website=Fillip|access-date=14 May 2019}}
Maura Sheehan is a community artist who encourages viewers to interact with her art and to help shape it. For example, Sheehan calls her Humanities Gallery of 2013 a 'non-site' like Andre Malraux's 'Museum without Walls' where she has displayed a glass spiral splintered to symbolise broken promises. As visitors walk on the glass path they inevitably break it and contribute to what Sheehan describes as a 'protracted entropic metaphysical disintegration that reveals a regenerating geometry and an architectural allegory underfoot'. Sheehan has said the influence for her work called Glass Garden was the Russian architect, Vladimir Tatlin's experiments with extending spaces from a solid base. This work is seen as a celebration of shared ideals where space 'unspools from a cracking constructivist composition and the spiral is reminiscent of capitalism in crisis.'{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.maurasheehan.net/glass-garden|title=Glass Garden|website=Maura Sheehan|access-date=14 May 2019}}
Broken glass is an ongoing feature in her work, from early installations at the Orchard Gallery, Derry (1989){{Cite journal|last=Brett|first=David|year=1989|title=New Installations, Orchard Gallery Derry, 13 July – 31 August|journal=Circa|issue=48|pages=43–45|doi=10.2307/25557478|issn=0263-9475|jstor=25557478}} to Ocean Floor (1990) which both use automated windshields.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FmmVsBHRIWMC&dq=Maura+Sheehan+glass&pg=PA329|title=Made in the U S A: Modern/Contemporary Art in America|last=Collischan|first=Judy|date=March 2010|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9781440198540}} in 1998 Maura Sheehan did an installation at the Neuberger museum of art, part of the exhibition Glass Houses, again using windshields.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/06/nyregion/art-an-exhibition-that-equates-craftsmanship-with-artistry.html|title=ART; An Exhibition That Equates Craftsmanship With Artistry|last=Raynor|first=Vivien|date=September 6, 1998|work=The New York Times|access-date=14 May 2019|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite book|title=Glass House: Bing Hu, Maura Sheehan and Therman Statom|last=Perreault|first=John|publisher=Neuberger Museum|year=1998|isbn=|location=|pages=}}
Exhibitions
Exhibitions include: Centro Anduluz de Arte Contemporaneo{{Cite web|url=http://www.caac.es/english/exh/projects/frame_interv13.htm|title=Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo|website=caac.es|access-date=14 May 2019}} Museum of Modern Art New York{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/73212|title=Maura Sheehan {{!}} MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|access-date=14 May 2019}} The Station Museum of Contemporary Art FiveMyles Gallery{{Cite web|url=http://fivemyles.org/new-events-1/2017/8/15/joint-opening-guerrillas-in-the-midst-and-maura-sheehan|title=Joint Opening: Guerrillas in the Midst and Maura Sheehan|website=FiveMyles Gallery|access-date=14 May 2019}}
Awards include: CAPS, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts.{{cn|date=March 2025}}
References
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Category:American women artists