Mary Miss Explained

Mary Miss
Birth Name:	Mary M Miss
Birth Date:	27 May 1944^[1]
Birth Place:	New York, New York, U.S.
Education:	University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A. 1966) Maryland Institute College of Art (M.F.A. 1968)
Style:	Environmental art
Spouse:	George Peck

Mary Miss (born May 27, 1944) is an American artist and designer. Her work has crossed boundaries between architecture, landscape architecture, engineering and urban design. Her installations are collaborative in nature: she has worked with scientists, historians, designers, and public administrators. She is primarily interested in how to engage the public in decoding their surrounding environment.

Early life and education

Miss was born May 27, 1944, in New York City, but she spent her youth moving every year while living primarily in the western United States.^[1]

Miss studied art and received a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1966.^[2] Miss later received an M.F.A. from the Rhinehart School of Sculpture of Maryland Institute College of Art in 1968.^[3]

Influence in public art

As a public artist, Miss is considered a pioneer in environmental art and site-specific art, as well a leading sculptor during the feminist movement of the 1970s. She was a founding member of the journal Heresies. From her earliest work, she has been interested in bringing the specific attributes of a site into focus along with and audience engagement within public space. Miss’ work crosses boundaries between landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, and graphic communication. Her work creates situations that emphasize a site's history, ecology, or aspects of the environment that have gone unnoticed. She has been particularly interested in redefining the role of the artist in the public domain.

In her influential 1979 essay, Sculpture in the Expanded Field, art critic Rosalind Krauss opens with a description of Mary Miss's, Perimeters/Pavilions/Decoys.^[4] Krauss uses Miss's work to support her examination of sculpture's interdisciplinary nature between architecture and landscape. South Cove (1988)^[5] , a permanent public project in Battery Park, is a seminal project in Miss' career as it signified new possibilities for artists working in the public realm. The project, located on a three-acre site at the base of the riverfront Esplande, was made in collaboration with architect Stanton Eckstut and landscape designer Susan Child. "South Cove brings the public more intimately in contact with the water than any other component of Battery park City or, indeed, any other Manhattan riverside park."^[6]

Miss has worked on the development of the project City as Living Laboratory, which, according to the project's description, collaborates with artists, environmental designers and scientists to focus on and explore sustainability in cities.^[7]

Selected works

Battery Park Landfill (1973) installation was a temporary piece of five signboard-like structures, placed 50-feet apart across the landfill site.^[8] A series of large cut out circles descended into the ground describing a column of air that materialized only when the viewer stood with the boards aligned.

Untitled (1973)^[9] was created in April and May 1973 at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, as part of the exhibition Four Young Americans (which also featured Ann McCoy, Ree Morton, and Jackie Winsor). This initial version of the work comprised wooden slats protruding directly along the sides of a square hole cut into the ground on the northeast lawn of the museum. The museum subsequently invited Miss to re-create the work using permanent materials—making this her first permanent commissioned work and her earliest extant public work. Constructed in the summer of 1975 under the artist's supervision, the second version was created with powder-coated steel slats protruding from tinted concrete, in its original siting.

The Des Moines Art Center (1989–96),^[10] Des Moines, Iowa, is a 7.5-acre site developed as both an art installation and restoration site. It includes a demonstration wetland, outdoor classroom, overhanging walkways, a pavilion, and a curved trellis. The structures highlight the connection between land and water. Visual elements and images are interwoven throughout the site to reflect the history of the park and its surroundings. The structure "Greenwood Pond: Double Site" is deteriorated and there are plans to dismantle it.^[11]

Framing Union Square] (installed 1998),^[12] New York City, Miss collaborated with architect Lee Harris Pomeroy to create 125 red frame elements scattered throughout the 14th Street–Union Square station. The red elements highlight the disappearance of lost infrastructure as well as industrial elements that remain.

CALL projects

Roshanara's Net (2008)^[13] created a temporary garden of medicinal plants—ayurvedic herbs, trees and bushes—in New Delhi, India. The installation focused on the health and well being of the individuals and their communities.

StreamLines (2013)^[14] installed a cluster of mirrors and red beams in five Indianapolis neighborhoods, which radiate out from a central point to nearby streams and waterways. The installation was intended to get visitors to follow the beams to the nearby waterways. This project was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Exhibitions

Miss was included in the exhibition Twenty-Six Contemporary Women Artists at the Aldrich Museum in 1971. Lucy Lippard was the curator, and other artists included Alice Aycock and Jackie Winsor.^[15] She was also included in the exhibition Four Young Americans alongside the artists Ann McCoy, Ree Morton, and Jackie Winsor, curated by Ellen H. Johnson and Athena Tacha at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.

Along with others, Miss's work has been included in the exhibitions Decoys, Complexes and Triggers at the Sculpture Center in New York, Weather Report: Art and Climate Change organized by Lucy Lippard at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, More Than Minimal: Feminism and Abstraction in the 1970s at the Rose Art Museum, and Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis at the Tate Modern.^[16]

Miss has also been the subject of exhibitions at the Harvard University Art Museum, Brown University Gallery, The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, the Architectural Association in London, Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and the Des Moines Art Center.

Selected group exhibitions

• Sculpture Annual (1970) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[17]
• Whitney Biennial (1973) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[18]
• Rooms (1976) P.S. 1, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York^[19]
• Nine Artists: Theodoran Awards (1977) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY^[20]
• Architectural Analogues (1978) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[21]
• The Minimal Tradition (1979) Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut^[22]
• Drawing:The Pluralist Decade (1980) Venice Biennale, Italy^[23]
• Whitney Biennial (1981) Whitney Museum of American Art, NY^[24]
• Habitats (1983) P.S. 1, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York^[25]
• Metamanhattan (1984) Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown Branch, NY^[26]
• Sitings (1986) La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA; Dallas^[27]
• New Photography 8 (1992) MoMA, New York^[28]
• The Second Dimension: 20th Century Sculptors Drawings (1993) Brooklyn Museum, New York^[29]
• More Than Minimal: Feminism and Abstraction in the 70's (1996) Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham MA.^[30]
• 100 Drawings (1999) P.S. 1, Contemporary Art Museum, Long Island City, New York^[31]
• Primarily Structural: Minimalist and Post-Minimalist Works on Paper (1999) P.S. 1, Contemporary Art Museum, Long Island City, New York^[32]
• Biennial Exhibition of Public Art, Neuberger Museum of Art (1999) S.U.N.Y. Purchase, NY.^[33]
• Earthworks: Land Reclamation as Sculpture (2000) Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.^[34]
• Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis (2001) Tate Modern, London, England^[35]
• The Art of 9/11 (2005) Apex Art, New York^[36]
• Weather Report: Artists & Climate Change (2007) curated by Lucy Lippard, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO^[37]
• Decoys, Complexes, and Triggers: Feminism and Land Art in the 1970s (2008) Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY^[38]
• Modern Women: Single Channel (2011) MoMA P.S. 1, Queens, New York^[39]
• Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974 (2012) The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA^[40]
• Social Ecologies (2015) curated by Greg Lindquist, The Brooklyn Rail Curatorial Projects, Brooklyn, NY^[41]
• Minimalism: Space. Light. Object (2018), National Gallery, Singapore.^[42]
• Female Minimal (2020) Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Pantin, France^[43]

Selected solo exhibitions

• Projects (1976) Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Perimeters/Pavilions/Decoys (1978) Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts, Roslyn, NY^[44]
• Screened Court (1979) Minneapolis College of Art, MN
• Mirror Way (1980) Fogg Art Museum Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
• Mary Miss, (1981) Brown University and University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
• Art and Architecture (1983) Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England^[45]
• Pool Complex: Orchard Valley (1983–1985) Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, Missouri^[46]
• Interior Works: 1966-1984, (1984) Protetch-McNeil Gallery, NY
• Mary Miss : Projects, 1966-1987 (1987), Architectural Association, London^[47]
• Mary Miss, Photo/Drawings (1991), Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA^[48]
• Mary Miss Photo/Drawings (1996), Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA^[49]
• Mary Miss: An Artist Working in the Public Domain (2000), Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI
• Mary Miss: City as Living Laboratory, Hartford (2010-2011) Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut^[50]

Awards and honors

Miss received the New York City American Society of Landscape Architects President's Award in 2010,^[51] the American Academy in Rome's Centennial Medal in 2001, and a Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects in 1990. She received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1986. She was awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, 1975, and 1974.^{[52] [53]}

• Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS) grants (1973,^[54] 1977^[55])
• Project Grant, Mott Community College, Flint, MI, 1974
• New York State Council on the Arts (1973,^[56] 1976^[57])
• Brandeis University Creative Arts award (1982)^[58]
• Philip N. Winslow Landscape Design Award, Parks Council, NYC (1992)
• Urban Design award (in collaboration with Studio Works), Progressive Architecture Magazine (1992)
• The 2000 New York City Masterworks Award, The Municipal Arts Society and GVA Williams (2000)^[59]
• Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal, Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society for Architecture and Allied Arts (2004)^[60]
• China Sculpture Institute, Honorable Member (2008)
• NOAA Environmental Literacy Grant for FLOW: An Innovative Educational Toolkit for Rivers Awareness (2010)
• Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Grant, for BROADWAY: 1000 Steps (2010)^[61]
• Anonymous Was A Woman, Visual Art New York, NY (2011)^[62]
• National Science Foundation Award For Informal Science Education (ISE) for BROADWAY: 1000 STEPS (2011)^[63]
• New York City Award for Excellence in Design for The Passage: A Moving Memorial (2012)^[64]
• Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2013)^[65]
• National Science Foundation Award for Indianapolis: City As Living Laboratory (2013)^[66]
• Award of Merit, The American Institute for Architecture (2015)^[67]
• Bedrock of New York Award (2017)
• Global Excellence Award, Urban Land Institute (2018)^[68]

She was named as a distinguished alumni of UC Santa Barbara in 1985.^[69]

Personal life

Miss married sculptor Bruce Colvin in 1967,^[70] but later divorced in 1986.^[71] She is currently married to George Peck, a New York-based artist.^[72] They live together in Tribeca where Miss also has her studio.^[73]

Further reading

• Kingsley, April. "Six Women at Work in a Landscape." Arts Magazine 52 (April 1978): 108–12.
• Lippard, Lucy. "Mary Miss: An Extremely Clear Situation." Art in America 62 (March–April 1974): 76–7.
• Marter, Joan M. "Collaborations: Artists and Architects on Public Sites." Art Journal 48 (1989): 315–20.
• Miss, Mary. "On a Redefinition of Public Sculpture." Perspecta, no. 21 (1984): 52–69.
• Hamill, Sarah. "‘The Skin of the Earth’: Mary Miss's Untitled 1973/75 and the Politics of Precarity." Oxford Art Journal 41: 2 (August 2018): 271–291.

External links

• • MoMA Multimedia - Modern Women: Mary Miss
• Art Spaces Archive Project: Interview with Mary Miss
• City Atlas New York: Interview with Mary Miss
• The Heretics: Mary Miss
• The Cultural Landscape Foundation: Pioneer Mary Miss

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mary M Miss - United States Public Records. FamilySearch.
2. Web site: Summit NYC 2011: Mary Miss . The Municipal Art Society of New York . September 1, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120914080514/http://mas.org/summitnyc/speakers/mary-miss/ . September 14, 2012 . dead .
3. Web site: Mary Miss The Cultural Landscape Foundation. tclf.org. 2016-03-04.
4. Krauss . Rosalind . Sculpture in the Expanded Field . October . 1979 . 8 . 31–44 . 10.2307/778224 . 778224 . 26 January 2021 . 0162-2870. subscription .
5. Web site: South Cove. bpcparks.org. 2016-03-03.
6. Princenthal. Nancy. June 7, 1988. In The Waterfront. Village Voice.
7. Web site: Mary Miss Studio and CITY AS LIVING LABORATORY (CaLL) . City University of New York: The Center for the Humanities . 26 January 2021.
8. Web site: Mary Miss's South Cove . Sculpture Nature . en-EN . 7 July 2015.
9. Web site: 1973. Allen Memorial Art Museum bulletin. 2021-11-16. ohio5.contentdm.oclc.org. en.
10. Web site: Greenwood Pond: Double Site . Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation . 26 January 2021.
11. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/iowa-museum-to-dismantle-mary-miss-land-art-piece-amid-severe-decay-drawing-scrutiny/ar-AA1n9iO0?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=fcd6359f9e894f83bfdcaa22732d26d7&ei=152
12. Web site: Artwork: "Framing Union Square" (Mary Miss) . www.nycsubway.org . 26 January 2021.
13. Web site: 48 Degrees Celsius . Curating Cities: A Database Of Eco Public Art . 26 January 2021.
14. Web site: StreamLines . 26 January 2021 . en.
15. Book: Chadwick. Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 2012. Thames and Hudson. New York. 9780500204054. 349. 5th.
16. Web site: U.S. Department of State - Art in Embassies. art.state.gov. 2015-04-07.
17. Web site: Annual exhibition contemporary American sculpture, 1970.. January 26, 1970. Whitney Museum of American Art. Internet Archive.
18. Web site: 1973 Biennial exhibition. January 26, 1973. Whitney Museum of American Art. Internet Archive.
19. Web site: MoMA PS1 Archives, Series I: Curatorial and Exhibition Recordsin The Museum of Modern Art Archives MoMAPS1_I. www.moma.org.
20. Book: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.. Nine artists : Theodoron awards. 1977. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Theodoron (Foundation). 0-89207-008-0. New York. 3310032.
21. Web site: Architectural analogues : September 20-October 25, 1978, Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown Branch.. January 26, 1978. Whitney Museum of American Art. Internet Archive.
22. Web site: The Minimal Tradition by CT: Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art Ridgefield, 1979 on Mullen Books. Mullen Books.
23. Web site: Drawings: The Pluralist Decade - ICA Philadelphia. August 30, 2013. Institute of Contemporary Art - Philadelphia, PA.
24. Book: Whitney Museum of American Art. 1981 Biennial exhibition.. 1981. Whitney Museum of American Art. Frances Mulhall Achilles Library Whitney Museum of American Art. English.
25. Web site: Habitats | MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art.
26. Book: Whitney Museum of American Art. MetaManhattan : [exhibition] Whitney Museum of American Art, Downtown Branch, Federal Hall National Memorial, January 12-March 15, 1984.]. 1984. Whitney Museum of American Art. Frances Mulhall Achilles Library Whitney Museum of American Art. English.
27. Book: Davies, Hugh Marlais, 1948-. Sitings : Alice Aycock, Richard Fleischner, Mary Miss, George Trakas. 1986. La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. Onorato, Ronald J., Yard, Sally., La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art., Dallas Museum of Art., High Museum of Art.. 0-934418-25-X. La Jolla, Calif.. 13810750.
28. Web site: New Photography 8: Dieter Appelt, Ellen Brooks, Darrel Ellis, Dennis Farber, Robert Flynt, Mary Miss, Gundula Schulze and Toshio Shibata | MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art.
29. Web site: Brooklyn Museum. www.brooklynmuseum.org.
30. Book: Stoops, Susan L.. More than minimal : feminism and abstraction in the '70s. Waltham, Mass. : Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. 1996.
31. Web site: MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: 100 Drawings . 2015-11-09 . 2015-10-31 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151031180548/http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/244 . dead .
32. Web site: MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Primary Structural: Minimalist and Post-Minimalist Works on Paper . 2015-11-09 . 2015-10-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151022174948/http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/224 . dead .
33. Book: Art, Neuberger Museum of. Neuberger Museum of Art 1999 Biennial Exhibition of Public Art: On the Campus of Purchase College, State University of New York, June 27-October 24, 1999. 1999. Neuberger Museum of Art. en.
34. Web site: Earthworks: Land Reclamation, Revisited. July 29, 2020.
35. Web site: Century City – Exhibition at Tate Modern . Tate . 2001-04-29 . 2021-01-26.
36. Web site: apexart :: Arthur C. Danto :: The Art of 9/11. apexart.org.
37. Book: Weather report : art and climate change. Lippard, Lucy R.,, Smith, Stephanie, 1970-, Revkin, Andrew,, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art., EcoArts.. 2007. 978-0-9799007-0-9. Boulder, Colorado. 181344923.
38. Web site: Decoys, Complexes, and Triggers: Feminism and Land Art in the 1970s. www.sculpture-center.org.
39. Web site: MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Modern Women: Single Channel . 2015-11-18 . 2015-10-31 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151031180825/http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/330 . dead .
40. Web site: Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974. www.moca.org.
41. Web site: Social Ecologies | Brooklyn Rail Curatorial Projects. curatorialprojects.brooklynrail.org.
42. Web site: MINIMALISM: SPACE. LIGHT. OBJECT.. National Gallery Singapore.
43. Web site: Group Exhibition | Dimensions of Reality: Female Minimal. Thaddaeus Ropac.
44. Book: Miss. Mary. Perimeters/pavilions/decoys: [exhibition] : Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts [sic|last2=Nassau County Museum of Fine Art (N.Y.)|date=1978|publisher=The Museum|location=Roslyn, N.Y.|language=English|oclc=4888654].
45. Book: Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, England). Art & architecture. London : Institute of Contemporary Arts. 1983. 0905263243.
46. Web site: Mary Miss. Laumeier Sculpture Park.
47. Book: Miss. Mary. Mary Miss: projects, 1966-1987.. Architectural Association (Great Britain). 1987. Architectural Association. 978-0-904503-95-1. London. English. 18806703.
48. Book: Miss, Mary, 1944-. Mary Miss, photo/drawings : April 2-28, 1991, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania.. 1991. The Gallery. Freedman Gallery (Reading, Pa.). 0-941972-12-7. Reading, Pa.. 24374904.
49. Book: Miss, Mary, 1944-. Mary Miss photo/drawings : September 21, 1996-January 5, 1997. 1996. Des Moines Art Center. Des Moines Art Center.. 1-879003-15-5. Des Moines, Iowa. 37536823.
50. Web site: City as Living Laboratory, Hartford (2011). City as Living Laboratory (CALL).
51. Web site: Previous President's Dinner Honorees ASLA-NY. 2021-01-26. en-US.
52. Web site: Miss. Mary. Artist Home Page. 21 May 2014.
53. Book: National Council on the Arts. National Endowment of the Arts Annual Report 1974. National Endowment of the Arts. 1974. Washington, D.C.. 110.
54. Book: Creative Artists Public Service Program. Photographers, Sculptors, Painters, Printmakers 1972-1973. Gallery Association of New York State Inc.. 1973.
55. Book: Creative Artists Public Service Program. Visual Art: Graphic Artists, Painters, Photographers, Sculptors 1976-1977. Gallery Association of New York State Inc.. 1977.
56. Book: New York State Council on the Arts. New York State Council on the Arts Annual Report 1972-73. New York Stale Council on the Arts. 1973. 140.
57. Book: New York State Council on the Arts. New York State Council on the Arts Annual Report 1975-76/1976-77. New York State Council on the Arts. 1977. 87.
58. News: 1982-04-29 . Brandeis Awards to Go To Nine Today . C21 . New York Times . 2023-01-25.
59. Web site: 14th Street Union Square Station. 2021-01-26. LHPArchitects. en-US.
60. Web site: Gold Medal Recipients Tau Sigma Delta. 2021-01-26. en-US.
61. Web site: Graham Foundation > Grantees > Mary Miss. 2021-01-26. www.grahamfoundation.org.
62. Web site: Recipients to Date. 2021-01-26. Anonymous Was A Woman. en-US.
63. Web site: NSF Award Search: Award#1240641 - City as Living Laboratory for Sustainability in Urban Design. 2021-01-26. www.nsf.gov.
64. Web site: Design Commission - Thirtieth Annual Design Awards. 2021-01-26. www1.nyc.gov.
65. Web site: The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. announces 116 grants totaling $2,163,000 to visual artists internationally in fiscal year 2013-2014. – Pollock-Krasner Foundation. 2021-01-26. en-US.
66. Web site: NSF Award Search: Award#1323117 - Indianapolis as a Living Laboratory: Science Learning for Resilient Cities. 2021-01-26. www.nsf.gov.
67. Web site: AIA New York Announces 2015 Design Award Winners. 2021-01-26. AIA New York. en-US.
68. Web site: 2017-11-14. ULI Announces Winners of 2017-2018 Global Awards for Excellence. 2021-01-26. ULI Europe. en.
69. News: November 7, 1985 . UC Santa Barbara Will Honor 2 Alumni . . . September 1, 2015.
70. News: Degenhart . Karen . September 1, 1981 . Activities . The Governors State University Innovator . . . 8 . 1 . 6 . March 9, 2016.
71. Berman . Avis . November 1989 . Space Exploration . . . 88 . 9 . 130–135 . March 9, 2016.
72. News: Baldwin . Deborah . September 20, 2001 . It's Going to Take More Than Elbow Grease . . . March 3, 2016.
73. News: Smith . Sonia . September 7, 2006 . Mary Miss, artist . . . March 3, 2016.