Meridith McNeal

STATEMENT

Inside Outside

Three things want a frame to give them structure: a painting, a story, and a window. All take different kinds of framing, of course, but the concept is similar: physical or abstract, a frame implies a viewpoint. It is where you start from.

Where you end up, on the other hand, is another matter entirely, because frames—for paintings, for stories, or for windows—are not so simple. They are points of entry that at the same time throw up barriers and define boundaries: the viewer is on one side or the other. A frame simultaneously organizes, invites, points the way, and separates.

Windows, in particular, invite a multiplicity of meanings. Add a reflective surface, so light can work its magic, and you bring a sort of graceful confusion: what is on one side can coexist with what is on the other, the space behind and before the viewer overlaid. Where you have been shows itself side by side with where you are, or where you may yet be going.

Inside Outside Windowphilia are life-sized ink and watercolor paintings of windows on paper.

Magical Things

Started while on my first residency at the American Academy in Rome Magical Things is an ongoing series of watercolors that venerate the easily overlooked objects of everyday life. Mundane objects become totems, milagros—charms of mindfulness, imbued with a power greater than the sum of their parts. This series has taken some twists and turns. For example, in 2018 after my mother died, I began a trajectory of this work which brought me solace and comfort: Magical Things from My Mother’s House. When NYC was given stay-at-home orders in March 2020, I embarked on Magical Things from Quarantine which helped me to process the strangeness of the time. These small paintings have and will continue to serve as a ballast of sorts, a touchstone for day-to-day experience.

BIO

Meridith McNeal is a Brooklyn-based artist. Meridith has been a frequent Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. Her work is represented by Figureworks Gallery (Kingston, NY), the Flat Files of Kentler International Drawing Space (Brooklyn, NY), and Embrace Creatives (Detroit, MI).

Meridith’s recent solo exhibitions include Ordinary Magic at The Galleries at Interchurch Center, NYC; The Way We See It, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; More French Windows, Appetit SoNo, Norwalk CT; Portrait of My Mother at Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn; Inside Outside Windowphilia, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY; The View from Here at FiveMyles Gallery in Brooklyn, NY and In Reflection, Torre Truglia, Sperlonga, Italy. In 2017 Meridith represented Sperlonga Italy in the renown Fabriano Paper Festival.

In 2022 Meridith received the Curators Award for All The World’s a Stage, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis MA, In 2021 she was RJE Foundation Excellence in Teaching Award winner, and Association Award Winner, Brand 49, Brand Library& Art Center, Glendale, CA. In 2020 her work received Curators Choice for Excellence in WASH 2020, Sacramento, CA; awarded Curators Choice for Excellent Artwork in Open Exhibition for Art Room Contemporary; and awarded Honorable Mention, Open Art Show, Grey Cube Gallery. In 2020 and 2019 she was recognized with Artists of the Year by the Circle Foundation for the Arts, Lyon, France. In 2019 she was awarded an Individual Artists Grant, Brooklyn Arts Fund Program, by BAC (Brooklyn Arts Council); Best of Show in Arizona Aqueous XXXIV at Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac AZ; cited for top merit in 2019 Contemporary Art Survey at Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, CO; and received the jury top merit award for my work included in Loss, Redemption and Grace at EBD4, Chamblee, GA. In 2017 she was a finalist in painting for the Arte Laguna Prize International Art Award, Venice, Italy.

Meridith was featured in A View From the Easel During Times of Quarantine in HYPERALLERGIC February 19, 2021. She is included in You Are Here/NYC: Mapping the Soul of the City, Katharine Harmon, Princeton Architectural Press, 2016; Map As Art Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, Katharine Harmon, published by Princeton Architectural Press, 2009.

Her recent curatorial efforts include Your Flowers Are So Lovely They Have Made Me Well Again, STAR, Brooklyn, NY; Transformers, St. Joseph’s College Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, In Our Nature, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; and Natural Causes, 107 Bowers Gallery & Art Space, Jersey City, NJ.

Meridith is the founder and Director of ART YARD BKLYN.

EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Graceful Confusion, Magazzino Gallery, Palazzo Polignac, Venice, Italy
Inside Out, Plus Space at FiveMyles, Brooklyn NY
2021
The Way We See It, FiveMyles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
More French Windows, Appetit SoNo, Norwalk CT
2019
Portrait of My Mother, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
French Windows, Appetit Bistro, Port Chester, NY
2018
Grand Windows, 705 Driggs, Brooklyn, NY
Buonappetito, Capers, Port Chester, NY
2017
Inside/Outside Windowphilia, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
We Are All Puppets, HEREart, NYC
In Reflection, Torre Truglia, Sperlonga, Italy
The View from Here, FiveMyles, Brooklyn, NY
é vero, Tramonto Bistrot, Sperlonga, Italy
2016
Finestre e altei oggetti, Il Tramonto, Sperlonga, Italy
2015
Hot Town, Summer in Italy, Gorilla Arté, Sperlonga Italy
2013
Camera con vista: incantevole windowphilia, Hyunnart Studio Gallery, Rome, Italy
Seer, Aita, Brooklyn, NY
2012
50/50: Brooklyn/Sperlonga, ex chiesa sanctae mariae de Spelonchae, Sperlonga, Italy
“Rome and a Villa”, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Cream & Sugar, NeroDoro, Brooklyn, NY
2010
La Dispensa, Santi, Roma, Italia
In the Footsteps of the Starry Messenger, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
Cream & Sugar, NeroDoro, Brooklyn, NY 2010-2014
Italian Lessons, Gnarly Vines, Brooklyn, NY
2009
Golose Necessità, Santi, Roma, Italia
2008Magical Things, St. Joseph’s College Alumni Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
When We Were Six, Cannon’s Walk, South Street Seaport, NYC
Dress Up, Fairleigh Dickinson University Art Gallery, Teaneck, NJ
2007
Keeping Room, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
2006
Threads of Memory (project room installation), Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY
2005
Another Place, Another Time, H.A.C. Gallery, Kobe City, Japan
2004
You Must Remember This, Figureworks, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Uncharted Territories, Wood, Rafalsky & Wood, Brooklyn, NY
Romantic Places, Berlitz, NYC
2002
Beautiful Necessity, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Protest Signs, CAB Gallery, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Baldwin National 2022, Holt Russell Gallery, Baldwin City, KS
Invitational, Art Essex Gallery, Westport, CT
2021
Pure Paint, Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA
Luminosity, B Extraordinaire Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Your Flowers Are So Lovely They Have Made Me Well Again, STAR, Brooklyn, NY
Artful Post, HEREart, NYC
20 years: 2000-2020, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
The Art of Coney Island, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY
Brand 49 Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library& Art Center, Glendale, CA
LUMIÈRE, ART FLUENT, Boston, MA
PAPERWORKS 2021, b.j. spoke gallery, Huntington, NY
Landscapes Built and Grown, Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
40th Annual Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors, View, Old Forge, NY
Arizona Aqueous XXXV, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac AZ
Out of Darkness, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum Hamilton, OH
2020
Home for the Holidays, Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI
Out of Isolation, The Firefly Artists, Northport, NY
State of the Arts 2020, Prairie Village Arts Council, Prairie Village, KS
30/30 Small Works on Paper, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Go With The Flow Watercolor Exhibition, Sacramento Horizons, Sacramento, CA
Another Moment in Time, Old Town Guild Fine Art & Crafts Center, Cutchogue, NY
WASH 2020, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA
Artists Who Teach 2020, Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery, Fayetteville, NC
In Reflection, Kentler International Drawing Space, ART YARD, Brooklyn, NY
Works on Paper, The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts & Sciences, Loveladies, NJ
Endless Horizon, Gestalt Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Expressions 2020 exhibition, Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CASan Rafael, CA 94901
Summer Play, Cape Cod Art Museum, Dennis, MA
Open Art Show, Grey Cube Gallery, online platform
2020
National Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA
Reflections, St. Joseph’s College Alumni Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019
Arizona Aqueous XXXIV, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac AZ
Black and White National, 311 Gallery, Raleigh, NC
National Juried Painting Exhibition, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
Artists Who Teach, Fayetteville State University Rosenthal Art Gallery, Fayetteville, NC
Small and Smaller, Site : Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
The Room, Gestalt Projects, Santa Monica, CA
Aqueous, Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Imagine, Gallery by the Lake, Lake Charles, La
2019 Contemporary Art Survey, Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO
Loss, Redemption and Grace, EBD4, Chamblee, GA
ART & DEMOCRACY VI 2019, Visual Artists Guild, Los Angeles, CA
Brooklyn Vanguard, Hudson Guild Gallery, NYC
Piezas Exquisitas / Exquisite Parts, Mar Vista, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Transformers, St. Joseph’s College Alumni Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2018
Landscape: Real and Imagined, Site : Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY
Echo Echo, Curated by Nancy Bowen, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Black Out, Ashton Gallery, San Diego, CA
October Show, OSSAM Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Cat and Dog in Art, OSSAM Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
connect + collect, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
2017
New Additions, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
STATE PROPERTY, BronxArtSpace, Bronx, NY
Place, A Point of View at Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
FabrianoInAcquarello 2017, Torre Truglia, Sperlonga, Italy
FabrianoInAcquarello 2017, ex chiesa sanctae mariae de Spelonchae, Sperlonga, Italy
The Four Seasons, Village West Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
Political Unrest Revisited, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
Notes from Abroad, 107 Bowers Gallery & Art Space, Jersey City, NJ
2016
Making Music, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
Wearable Arts, GCCA, Catskill, NY
Collage, FiveMyles, Brooklyn, NY
Outdoor Banner Project, FiveMyles, Brooklyn, NY
2015
Cautionary Tales: Old Visions Through New Eyes, President’s Gallery, John Jay College, NYC
In Pursuit of Freedom, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Sodom by the Sea Salon, Coney Island Museum, Coney Island USA, Brooklyn, NY
Crystal Anniversary, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Useful Objects, Proteus Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
We Got Spirit, Yes We Do, Unity Gallery, Fairfield, IA
Without/Color, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Liar, Liar, (with Giuseppe Di Lelio) Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Friend of a Friend, Lovey Town, Everywhere
Circumstances, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Get Up, Stand Up!, The Distillery Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
My Sisters Doll, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Toast of Bed Sty, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Co., Brooklyn, NY
Day After Day, Museum at SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
Art Barn 2013, Amy Simon Fine Arts, Westport, CT
Word, Rotunda Gallery at Mount Vernon Public Library, Mount Vernon, NY
Faces of Figureworks: Self Portraits, Figureworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Contemporary Cartographies, Lehman College Art Gallery/CUNY, Bronx, NY
2012
Word, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Summer Has Just Come, Sans Quoi Gallery, Okayama, Japan
Art Barn, Amy Simon Fine Arts, Westport, CT
The Influential Female - Drawings Inspired by Women in History, Kentler, Brooklyn, NY
2011
Fashioned in Time, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Common Threads, Fairleigh Dickinson University Art Gallery, Teaneck, NJ
Human Form: An Enduring Inspiration, Ann Street Gallery, Newburg, NY
The Heights, Distillery Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
Italiana, St. Joseph’s College Alumni Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2010
Topology of Dream Time, HAC Gallery, Kobe City, Japan
Meridith McNeal, Ed Rath & Shiro Sasaki, Nuovo e Vecchio Gallery, Kobe City, Japan
Mapping: Memory and Motion in Contemporary Art, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Exploring 100 Years of Figurative Art: The Edith Halpert Influence, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
In the Footsteps of the Starry Messenger (one person) Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
Fan, Sans Quoi Gallery, Okayama, Japan
A Light Above the Rest, MyPAC, Miami, FL
Water, Atlantic Gallery, NYC
Figureworks 10th Year Anniversary, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
2009
Map as Art, Christopher Henry Gallery, NYC
The Exquisite Corpse, Paul Robeson Galleries, Newark NJ,
Funny Face Invitational, Coney Island Museum, Brooklyn, NY
The Future Figure curated by K. Saito, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
Magical Things/For the People (w/ Ed Rath) James Cummins Bookseller, NYC
Sic Transit Gloria, Atlantic Gallery, NYC
Tote Bag, Sans Quoi Gallery, Okayama, Japan
2008
Fashion Forward, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY
Brooklyn Is A State of Mind, 95 Lexington, Brooklyn, NY
Represent Brooklyn, TRA Gallery, Brooklyn
Heart & Soul (Younity), Alphabeta, Brooklyn, NY
ART @ Forte, Forte Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY
2007
Flow: Miami Invitational Art Fair, Amy Simon Fine Arts, Miami, FL
Punchbowl, Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, NY
Highlights 2007, Figureworks, Brooklyn, NY
Crossover: Fusion of Female Stylez, Ideaz and Skillz, The Showroom, NYC
Well Dressed, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NYC
Money, Hewitt Gallery of Art, NYC
Beside Your Shimmering Doorway in Emily Dickinson Rendered, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
Hot Summer Art Battle, Sans Quoi Gallery, Okayama, Japan
Stitched, Surface Library Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Playing For Keeps, Atlantic Gallery, NYC
Summer Rotation 2007, Amy Simon Fine Arts, Westport, CT
ART @ Forte, Forte Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY
The Spirit of Color, Amy Simon Fine Arts, Westport, CT
The Handmaking, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, PA
2006
Personal Geographies, Hunter 42nd Street Gallery, NYC
East Wind: West Wind (w/Ed Rath & Shiro Sasaki), H.A.C. Gallery, Kobe City, Japan
Trashion, Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, NY
Music to my Eyes, Tabla Rasa Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Art re-FASHION-ed, Harriet’s Alter Ego, Brooklyn, NY
Trash: What We Value & What We Throw Away, Atlantic Gallery, NYC
Here Comes the Bride, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
Women’s History, Community Gallery, Brooklyn Borough Hall, Brooklyn NY
Neighborhood Divas, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Racing Pages, LGB&T Community Center, NYC
Brooklyn, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT
2005
A Sense of Place, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA
Art Bar, Gallery on the Ithaca Commons, Ithaca, NY
Figurations, Kentler Satellite Flatfile at Proteus Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Kicks Ass, Gallery D3, Brooklyn, NY
Breaking Ground, New York Horticultural Society Gallery, NYC
Works on Paper, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Benefit 2005 and Works from the Flat File, Momenta, Brooklyn, NY
Got Quirk?, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Il
Distance Made Good, Fading Ad, Brooklyn NY
2004
Pattern & Decoration, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
Memory, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS
Balancing Act, Abrons Art Center, Henry Street Settlement, NYC
Uncharted Territory: Subjective Mapping by Artists & Cartographers, Julie Saul Gallery, NYC
She Must Have Looked Lovely in That Dress (w/ Laura Hewitt), Edward Hopper House, Nyack, NY
Distance Made Good, gallerythe, Brooklyn, NY
2003
Multiple Memorials, Viridian Gallery, Chelsea NYC
Postcards from The Edge, Galerie Lelong, NYC
Small Works on Paper, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Paper Cuts, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY
2002
Peace, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Postcards from The Edge, Sperone Westwater, NYC
Ground Zero, Detroit Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI
Souls of Humanity, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
Reactions, Exit Art, NYC
2001
Assumed Presence (w/ Laura Hewitt), ACT, Indianapolis, IN
Chair City, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
eMotion Pictures, Herbst International Exhibition Hall, San Francisco, CA
Heel to Toe, Smithtown Township Arts Council, St. James, NY

EDUCATION

Vermont College Norwich University, Montpelier VT MFA
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY BFA
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

AWARDS

2020 The Lumieri Review Literary Magazine, CA
Awarded Jurors Top Choice in Arizona Aqueous XXXV at Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac AZ
Vox Viola Literary Magazine: amplifying women's voices through poetry, prose, and visual arts.
Art in Social Isolation, Duende Art Magazine, UK
Awarded Curators Choice for Excellence, Go With The Flow Watercolor Exhibition, Sacramento Horizons, Sacramento, CA
Awarded Curators Choice for Excellence, WASH 2020, Sacramento, CA
Finalist Visual Art Open 2020 UK & International Emerging Artist Awards, Chester, UK
35x35 Art Project & permanent collection of Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens, Greece
Finalist Summer Play, Cape Cod Players Playbill Print Cover, Dennis, MA
Artists of the Year (Painting), Circle Foundation for the Arts, Lyon, France
Awarded Honorable Mention, Open Art Show, Grey Cube Gallery, March 2020
Awarded Curators Choice for Excellent Artwork in Open Exhibition Art Room Contemporary, 2020
Freebird Books featured in Reed Magazine, San Jose, CA, Winter 2020
Inside Outside Windowphilia featured in The Stirling Spoon, January 2020 issue
Graceful Confusion featured in Up the Staircase Quarterly, issue #48
Meridith McNeal: Liberty Clouded; Liar, Liar; Inside Outside featured in Barzakh Magazine, 2020
2019 Awarded BEST IN SHOW in Arizona Aqueous XXXIV at Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac AZ
Awarded Curators Choice in 2019 Contemporary Art Survey at Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO
Jury Top Merit Award in Loss, Redemption and Grace, EBD4, Chamblee, GA
BAC (Brooklyn Arts Council), Brooklyn Arts Fund Program, Artists Grant
Artists of the Year (Painting), Circle Foundation for the Arts, Lyon, France
Included in: UPPERCASE Magazine issue 42, Magically Mundane, Alberta, Canada
Inside Outside Windowphilia included in: Genre: Urban Arts' No. 9, print and online magazine
Published: A Portrait of My Mother, Blurb 2019
2017 American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency
Arte Laguna Prize International Art Award: Finalist/Painting
2016 Included in: You Are Here/NYC: Mapping the Soul of the City, Katharine Harmon
2014 American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency
2013 American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency
2011 Published: In the Footsteps of the Starry Messenger, Blurb 2011
Artslant, 1st 2011 Showcase Winner in Sculpture
Hooper of the Month, Artwork featured and award, hoopnotica.com, February 2011
2010 American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency
Artslant, 6th 2010 Showcase Winner in Drawing
2009 Published: Meridith McNeal, Magical Things, Blurb
American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency
Included in: Map As Art, The: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, Katharine Harmon,
2008 American Academy in Rome, Visiting Artist/Scholar Residency

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

ART YARD BKLYN, Director, 2018-present
Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation NYC, Director of Education, 2005-2018
St. Joseph’s College Brooklyn Campus, Professor of Painting and Drawing, 2015
Rotunda Gallery Brooklyn, NY, Curator/Director of Education, 1989-2005
Vermont College Union Institute, Teaching Artist – MFA program, Visual Arts, 2003-2007
Pratt Institute Brooklyn, NY, Visiting Professor - Art and Design Education Department, 1992-2000
The Brooklyn Museum of Art Brooklyn, NY, Museum Educator, 1984-1989
P.S.1 Museum Long Island City, NY, Museum Educator, 1986-1989

TAGS

windowphilia, windows, watercolor, magical things, reflections, travel, urban, light