About

Artist Statement

Painting for me is a search for an image with an emotional feeling and a complex meditative composition. Although I often begin with a sketch, the idea changes significantly as the painting evolves and takes on a life of its own. I don’t know what the painting will be until it’s done. I like to make ambiguous geometric forms that may include optical illusions, and psychological or architectural structures with a feeling or mood conveyed through the use of color and light. The final piece is a discovery. My paintings are in three categories of materials: works on paper in watercolor and/or gouache; acrylic paintings on stretched canvas or linen; and acrylic paintings on cut out shapes of Masonite or MDF panel. Over the years I have made works in all types of painting media, as well as painted wood and wire sculpture and artist’s books.

Bio

Ann Provan grew up in Berkeley, California. She spent four years in France studying at the Université de Montpellier and the École Nationale Supériure des Beaux Arts, Paris, and traveled around Europe to see art. After returning to the U.S., she attended the San Francisco Art Institute and received an M.F.A. in Painting. She moved to New York City in 1976, living in SoHo and Brooklyn, and moved to the Hudson Valley in 2006. Ann Provan’s work has been shown at the New Museum, NYC; A.I.R. Gallery, NYC; Franklin Furnace, NYC; University of California, Davis; Wake Forest University; Rutgers University; Das Verborgene Museum, Berlin; the Buster Levi allery, Cold Spring, NY; Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY; Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY; Ethan Cohen Gallery’s Kube Art Center, Beacon, NY; and at Kaatsbaan Visual Art Exhibition, Tivoli, NY. She received a CAPS fellowship and a NYFA fellowship. Her work is in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, Franklin Furnace, and other collections.

Exhibitions

Education

BFA (Painting), San Francisco Art Institute

MFA (Painting), San Francisco Art Institute

Awards & Grants

New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship in Artists Books - 1993
Creative Artists Public Service, New York, NY Fellowship in Sculpture- 1983
Canada Council Visiting Foreign Artists’ Grant, La Chambre Blanche, Quebec, Canada - 1983
Rockefeller Visiting Artist, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC - 1980

Collections

Franklin Furnace, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; University of Oregon, Portland, OR; McGill University; Montreal, Canada; Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH

Bibliography

Rooney, Alison “Soft Squares” Highlands Current, March 18, 2022"
Durscheinende Dinge Transluscent Matters, Annette von Dewitz, Silke Grossmann, Ann Provan: Installationen/Objekte – Fotographie – Malerei." Brennpunkt, February 2013: 50-51 (Austria)
Bannon, Anthony, "VACI’s Take on Romeo and Juliet: Couples Who Life, Work, Exhibit Together", The Chautauquan Daily, July 17, 2013
Galas, Dan, "The Marina Gallery and the Provans", Always Be an Emerging Artist, Blog September 2012
"Converging/Parallel Unites the Works of the Provans", Philipstown.Info The Paper, September 7, 2012
Butler, Frances, "LIGHT/HEAVY Light: Contemporary Shadow in the Visual Arts", Poltroon Press, Berkeley, CA, 1985
Hoffberg, Judith, "Reviews" Umbrella, Glendale, CA, May 1983
Larson, Kay, "Reviews" The Village Voice, New York, 12/22/79
Logan, Susan, Kathleen Thomas, and Allan Schwartzman, "Dimensions Variable", The New Museum, New York, 1979
Nadeau, Lisanne, "Exposition des Livres d'Artists", La Chambre Blanche #12, Quebec, Canada, May 1983
Wallach, Alan, "CAPS Sculptors" ARTs Magazine, New York, NY December 1983
Zimmer, William, "Ocular Mechanics", The Soho Weekly News, New York, NY 10/11/79