NEWS

NEWS: 2024

Mary’s small landscapes can be viewed and purchased at the lovely Robins on Roan Gallery and frame shop in Johnson City, TN

This year Mary has been involved in serveral volunteer endeavors, including at the Rail Road Experience in Johnson City where she is facilitating mural and backdrop painting for the creative staff at this new museum.

NEWS: 2023

Juried into a new gallery in our region, Mary will be at the opening reception Friday November 10th, 5-8 Pm at the Griffin Gallery in Jonesborough, 105 Courthouse Square. The show is called “Small Wonders”

The Watauga Valley Art League invited Mary to present a powerpoint of gleanings from her study time this summer in Italy. She has also been invited to show and sell her own work with this league at the Sycamore Shoals State Park art show and sale November 18-26th

Mary won a scholarship to attend a July residency in Italy. This was a three week intensive with theological study which then was applied in an amazing studio space. More will come about and from this (see blog just posted).
Also a one night viewing of the 30 plus paintings and monotypes from Italy will be in a local frame shop on September 8th. Please come and see if you are local. Update: half of Mary’s small Italian work sold in that event!

To glean the aim of the work she intended to do there, this blog post was written before the trip and summarizes her motivation from an early monotype and some current happenings: https://marynees.com/2023/02/veil-and-looking-through/

Two shows so far have juried in Mary’s work in 2023.

“Good Grief” opened Jan. 4th and was all month at the Fischman Gallery, 133 N. Commerce Street in downtown Johnson City, TN. There was an opening reception Friday January 6th from 6-9 PM. Mary’s piece is titled “Achor” was on display there, along with a very interesting collection from nineteen other artists from around our region who have unique interpretations on this common human predicament we call grief.

Up and on view until March is “For the Love of Landscape” at the new Create Appalachia Kingsport Center Gallery, 225 W. Center Street, Kingsport, TN. Celebrating the wealth of talent and landviews around our region, this will be a treat. There was a closing reception on March 3rd from 6-8 PM. Most works there were on sale.

NEWS: 2022

In the month of July, a sampling of 9 pieces from Mary’s Master of Fine Arts work was shown again at a brand new gallery in our town: Fischman Gallery inside the Atelier 133, a classy new work area and show space in Johnson City, TN. You can read about this particular work in her August blog post.

Early in 2022, Both Mary’s submissions were selected for a winter show at the very fine Manifest Gallery in downtown Cincinnati. The curator, Jason Franz said this: “Our jury process has resulted in the final selection for this show including a set of 16 works by 10 artists from across the U.S. For the entire suite of Five-Themes exhibits we received 852 entries from 224 artists, making for a terrific sequence of shows through our five spaces!” This five themes project is quite interesting: WILDERNESS, RURAL, SUBURBAN, URBAN and POST URBAN. Mary’s pieces “EL Olam” and “In Entropy” were juried into this 5th dystopian category. Mary has written about both of these works recently on her blog. The show at Manifest opens January 20th with a ticketed preview; then their opening reception and on site visits will be until February 18th, 2022. To enjoy a virtual tour of all 5 spaces go here. Mary’s pieces hang side by side in the Post Urban room. A fine review of Manifest’s current show can be read in the current AEQAI e-journal.

NEWS: 2021

Robins on Roan Gallery and Frame shop now carries some of Mary’s new small oils on paper for gifting.

In November, Mary presented a short Art History summary “Visualization toward Transcendency” at a conference for CIVA, in Austin, TX

Opening October 15th, 5-7pm, at the McKinney Center, in Jonesborough, TN is a large solo exhibit of Mary’s work. Three series and many studies are included. On display, and for the entire month are total of 35 pieces exploring Genesis 15, Revelation chapters 2 and 3, and The Psalms of Ascent, Psalm 120–134. The video interview, and good summary of the show can be seen here. Mary will be present at the opening to answer any enquiries.

On September 9th, 2021 Mary did a live interview, from her studio with Jocelyn Mathewes of www.eatart.space. You can catch that 40 minute spontaneous discussion here. Also the next day was a live showing in EatArt’s intimate gallery space, explaining some of the impetus behind Mary’s recently completed Psalms of Ascent series.

Mary’s work can now be viewed not only here on her website but in 6 galleries in 4 different states. Recently she delivered 33 new works into galleries in the upper mid-west, including an exciting new space on Superior Street in the heart of Duluth’s revived downtown shopping district. Find links to those galleries on her contact page and notations on some of the images curated onto this website.

January 11th-March 12th “Contemporary Culture Makers” at the Reece Museum on campus of East TN State University. Curated by Jocelyn Mathewes, this group exhibition features ten regional artists. As the curator notes, the Appalachian Highlands are full of contemporary visual art treasures, and showcasing and supporting artists is one indication of a community’s vibrancy.Featured Artists: Laken Bridges, Eric Drummond-Smith, Ruby Falls, Jay Flack, Richard Graves, Tony Henson, Cozmo Luna, Mary Nees, Annamarie Williams and Stacie Williams. A Virtual Live Opening & Artist Talk will be held via Zoom on Thursday, January 21 beginning at 5pm. Find the link here.

Out of 747 entries sent to Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati for their upcoming 5 Themes project (WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE and WHY), Mary’s mixed media piece “Go Forth Abraham” was selected as one of 19 to be shown in the WHERE exhibit. This show space is small, and very carefully monitored during CoVid times. The mission of this excellent Gallery is stated: “Manifest Gallery serves as a venue for the display and experience of insightful, thought provoking art and design, and functions as a hub for creative research and innovation at all levels of artistic endeavor.” This show commences Jan.16th and will be up for a month, often they post virtual showings as well.

NEWS: 2020

Psalm 122 from Mary’s Ascent series was highlighted imagery in the order of service for All Saint’s Day, November 1st, at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, St. Louis, MO

“Cleansing Coming” Mary’s new oil piece painted this Spring has been selected into the permanent collection at the Reece Museum on the East Tennessee State University campus. The catalogue for that entire show “Local Art in the Age of the 2020 Global Pandemic” can be viewed here.

NEWS: 2019

The Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati showed Mary’s monotype “And Sore Must Be the Storm” in their December show. “Time Bombs” was the theme of this national juried collection where 24 selections were made out of 421 entires to fit the theme.

Mary’s oil abstract “Rock Cut Gesture” was juried into a Virginia biennial exhibition: From These Hills: Contemporary Art in the Southern Appalachian Highlands. First held in 1993, this biennial is unique in its geographical scope and the number of important artists it has exhibited who live and work in Southern Appalachia. This year marks William King Museum of Art’s fourteenth biennial with twenty-four artists from around the region chosen by guest curator Rebecca Elliot, Assistant Curator of Craft, Design, & Fashion at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The show is up from October 2019 into February 2020.

Yellow Bird Fine Art, in Grand Marias, MN now showcases some of Mary’s new series of rock cuts in oil.

JNS Gallery in Lutsen MN, now includes a collection of Mary’s ink drawings

Several of Mary’s landscape pieces in oil can be seen at a small gallery on Main Street in Weaverville, NC: “Artisans on Main”

Mary had a show ” Tangibility of Faith” at the Reece Museum, ETSU campus until February 22.

NEWS: 2018 
Mary was juried into 4 regional shows for this year.

Her sketch sets for Psalms of Ascents are being worked into larger cradled panels. 4 of the 15 are finished. 2019’s goal is to have all 15 completed.

NEWS: 2017

Mary led a team of artists, conceiving and completing an interior mural for a non-profit that serves and enriches kids after school

Mary also worked on an oil on paper studies for a 15 piece series on the Psalms of Ascents.

In addition to visual work, Mary has spent the last six years crafting “Markers,” her first solo publication. It is available on Amazon by the end of July.

NEWS: 2016
The Chief Curator at the Frist Gallery in Nashville, Mark Scala highlighted Mary’s watercolor “Promise of Latter Rain” in his talk at the McKinney Juried Show in Jonesborough, TN. Mary received an honorable mention for this piece.

NEWS: 2015
In June, Mary was invited to give a lecture on “The Roots of Western Art” at the Qingdao University of Science and Technology, People’s Republic of China.

NEWS: 2014
Mary’s piece “Achor” won third prize at the Appalachian Art Show In Kingsport, TN. See the image HERE and the blog post where I wrote about it HERE.

NEWS: 2013
Seven of Mary’s pieces have been selected to be shown in “Envisioned Landscape” at the Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City TN, sponsored by the Department of Design at East TN University in partnership with the Women’s Studies Program. This show involves 10 artists from around the country, and will be up the entire month of October. The reception and artist’s talk is October 4th, First Friday, from 6-8 pm.

Also, sponsored by the Women’s Fund of East TN and the Mary B. Martin Program for the Arts is a special exhibit “Journey’s of Women” opening October 18th and remaining up until Nov. 2 in Jonesborough TN at their newly refurbished McKinney Center. This show is the first of its kind and The McKinney Center looks promising for the arts in our region.

NEWS: 2012
Mary’s piece “Selah! To Take You In” has been juried into the Monotype Guild of New England’s 3rd Monotype and Monoprint Exhibition, at the Barrington Center for the Arts, Gordon College, Wenham MA, February 23- April 6, 2013.

12 of Mary’s monotypes were selected for showing during the academic year, 2012, at Cairn University, Langhorne, PA.

Her cold wax piece “Go Forth Abraham” has been selected into CIVA’s travelling show entitled “Scribes of Hope II,” juried by Timothy Botts.

NEWS: 2011
November. and December 2011 at the White Stone Gallery in Philadelphia, White Stone Gallery.

Mary exhibited in the East Tennessee State University’s “Positive Negative” national show, the regional “Mountain Visions” show at the Reece museum on the same campus, and the Appalachian Art show in Kingsport, TN, all juried shows. She also showed a 66 piece series called VOX at Grace Fellowship Church, Johnson City, TN in February 2011.

REVIEWS

I confess it took me a long time to understand that I was looking at portraits
of people in transformation and all that torments our souls as I glanced
at the fractured landscapes and electricity-filled voids that are the subjects
of Mary Barton Nees’ recent prints.

Despite the serious message, there’s a calmness to the imagery that required
study and eventually made me understand, but didn’t make me uncomfortable.
She’s an intellectual artist, not one who tries to shock. The layers of
meaning and layers of imagery reveal themselves slowly, which symbolizes
becoming and seeing what we haven’t before. Art is a journey like life is, she seems to say.

Allison Alfonso, 4/29/07, writer for the Johnson City Press, Johnson City,
TN

_______

Mary’s work highlights both personal and universal symbolism, dealing
with the difficult concept of spirituality. Many of her pieces enjoy the
freedom of combining techniques, utilizing color nuances and structural
symbolism. I hold her in the highest regard in terms of her artistic and
teaching ability, dependability, communication skills, listening skills,
enthusiasm and motivation.

Ralph Slatton, Professor/Printmaking, and former department chair, Art
and Design; East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

_______

Dr. John Hannah, Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, TX