Grace Knowlton was a painter, sculptor, photographer, and mixed media artist.

Knowlton began her career as a painter, then created the three dimensional spheres for which she first became known. She called the spheres “paintings in the round” and focused on both interior and exterior space as she shaped a variety of media, including clay, concrete, sheet metal, copper, bronze and wicker.

She studied drawing, painting and photography over the years and integrated these mediums into her spheres while branching out to create sculpture, photographs, and mixed media work independent of the spheres. Knowlton’s mixed medium pieces gradually combined elements of drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and layered computer imagery. She focused on “breaking conventional boundaries to create dialogues in line and form."

Born in Buffalo in 1932, Grace Knowlton attended Milton Academy as a young woman, then Smith College and Columbia University’s Teachers College. Knowlton had numerous solo exhibits throughout the country. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Storm King Art Center.

OBITUARY

Collections

Art Omi, Field Sculpture Park, Chatham, NY
Bates College, Lewiston, ME
Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Bergen, NJ
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
Kingsborough College, Queens, NY
Lannan Foundation, Florida
Longhouse Foundation, East Hampton
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Mobil Corporation, Washington, DC
Museum of Outdoor Art, Denver, CO
Mt. Holyoke College Museum, South Hadley, MA
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Northern Engraving Corp., Lacrosse, WI
Prudential Insurance Company of America, NY
Roberson Center for the Arts, Binghamton, NY
Smith College Museum, Northampton, MA
Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY
Sugar Hill Arts Center, NYC
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Yale University Museum of Art, New Haven, CT

EDUCATION

Public Installations

Grants / Awards / Residencies / Teaching

SOLO EXHIBITIONS, SELECTED

M-13 Gallery, New York, NY
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA

Group EXHIBITIONS, SELECTED

Bibliography

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