EDUCATION

  • The City University of New York, Queens College: M.F.A. in Painting
  • Harvard University, HGSE: Ed.M in Counseling and Consulting Psychology
  • Binghamton University: BA in Psychology and Studio Art, Phi Beta Kappa
  • Art Students League, Life Member and Merit scholarship


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023  

  • Women Celebrate Women, El Barrio’s Artspace, PS 109, NY, NY

2022  

  • Affordable Art Fair, Culturelab, LIC, NY

2021  

  • My Love is Your Love: Every Woman Biennial, The Copeland Gallery, London, UK
  • Destination Downtown, Gold Coast Art Center, Great Neck, NY, Jude Amsel, curator

2021

  • USPS Art Project (Christina Massey, curator) exhibitions at:

Pelham Art Center, Pelham NY

Ely Art Center, New Haven, CT

Art Gym, Denver, CO

InLiquid, Philadelphia, PA

  • My Love is Your Love: The Every Woman Biennial, The Copeland Gallery, London, UK

2020

  • Art in the Year of Uncertain Time, Communitea, Long Island City, NY
  • Feminine Identity, St. Josephs College Board Room Gallery, Patchogue, NY
  • Creative Expressions for Gender Equality, Rio II Gallery, New York, NY
  • A Book About Death: The Last Waltz, Islip Museum of Art, Islip, NY

2019

  • Every Woman Biennial, La MaMa La Galleria, NYC

2018

  • The Art of Mediation, Islip Museum of Art, Islip, NY
  • Flushing Bound , Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY
  • Girlhood, The Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY

2017 

  • Making Connections, The Plaxall Gallery and Henry DeFord Gallery, LIC, NY
  • UPSTANDERS!!, The Factory, Long Island City, NY     
  • Art-o-mat, Meow Wolf, Santa Fe NM and The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, NV
  • Art-o-mat, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
  • Summer of Love, Patchogue Art Gallery, Patchougue, NY
  • 8Loves, The Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY
  • Art from our City, The Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY
  • Nasty Women, Knockdown Center, Maspeth, Queens, NY
  • Postcards from the Edge, 19th Annual, Metro Pictures, NY, NY

2016

  • LIC-A Show, Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY
  • Animal Women, The Local NY, Long Island City, NY

2015

  • Frequency 440, The Factory, Long Island City, NY
  • Wish You Were Here 14, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
  • Over the Bridge, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY

2014

  • GO.FIGURE, Gotham Gallery, Long Island City, NY
  • Age of Innocence, Gallery 5404, Massapequa, NY

2013

  • People, Paces & Things, Omni Gallery, Garden City, NY 2012 

2012

  • NURTUREart 2012 Benefit, Charles Bank Gallery, New York, NY 2011

2011

  • Patchogue Arts Biennial, Briarcliff College, Patchogue, NY
  • Dreams and Realities of Daily Life, Permanent exhibition at SNAP: Art Connects New York, Queens NY

2010

  • NURTUREart Benefit, ZieherSmith, New York, NY
  • Tela Design Studio, Freedom Week Art Auction, New York, NY

2009

  • Discover Emerging Artists, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, NY
  • Social (Virus), NURTUREart Gallery, Williamsburg, NY
  • National Association of Women Artists 120th Anniversary Exhibition at:

Hub Robeson Galleries, Penn State University,

University Park, PA

Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ

2008  

  • Discover Emerging Artists, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
  • Insights into Suburbia at:

Robert L. Ringel Gallery

Purdue University, West Lafayette,Indiana

Dana Gallery, Rutgers University: Newark Campus 

2007

  • Melting Pot, Project Diversity Queens, World Culture OpenCenter, Flushing, NY
  • Insights into Suburbia, Opalka Gallery, Sage College of Albany, Albany, NY

2006

  • Figurative/Not Literal, Omni Gallery, Long Island, NY
  • Salon: An exhibition of works of art created by women artists, Bellevue Hospital Center

2005

  • New ’05, Spike Gallery, New York, NY

2004

  • Small Works, artSPACE@16, Malden, MA
  • In the Face of Others, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Gallery New York, NY

2003

  • ID_ENTITY, NURTUREart Gallery, Williamsburg, NY
  • Ready, Set, Go! An Exhibit of Toys & Games in Art, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, AK
  • Nature Hanging by a Thread, Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing, NY

2002

  • Nipples, a Hallway Project, Site-specific installation, PS 122 Gallery, New York, NY.

2001

  • Play, Gallery Korea, New York, NY.
  • Shadows, Site-specific exhibit, Citibank, Court Square, Long Island City, NY.

2000

  • Faces, Site-specific exhibit, Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing, NY.


SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • Candy Girls and Boys, Communitea, LIC, NY. 2018
  • Shadows,site-specific exhibit, Citibank Building, Long Island City, NY, 2001
  • Faces, site-specific exhibit, Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing, NY, 2000


SELECTED VIRTUAL EXHIBITIONS

2022  

  • Backordered, New York Artist Circle Online Gallery, Curator: Sara Nightingale

2021  

  • Lost and Found, A Personal Vision, New York Artist Circle Online Gallery
  • A Woman’s Work, Iona College Online Gallery, Curator: Beth Giacummo

2020

  • +|- International Virtual Festival of Arts in Q-tine, MoCA L.I. and Patchogue Arts Council
  • Drawings in a Time of Social Distancing, Long Island City Artists Online Gallery


PUBLIC PROJECTS and MULTIDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS

  • USPS Art Project Collaborator 2020-2021: Christina Massey, curator and founder
  • Slide Slam on Cam 2021, A filmed artist statement project with Patchogue Arts Council and the Museum of Contemporary Art, LI (PAC MOCA)
  • +|- International Virtual Festival of Arts in Q-tine, MoCA L.I. and Patchogue Arts Council
  • The 10th Anniversary Edition of A Book About Death: The Last Waltz at the Islip Museum of Art, 2019
  • Slide Slam at Haven Gallery, Northport, NY, 2019 in collaboration with MoCA L.I. and Patchogue Arts Council
  • Queens Memory Project: Interview project of Queens artists in collaboration with the Queens Public Library and William Patterson University, 2019
  • Art-O-Mat, Artist in CellophaneJaggedy Doll Project works placed in repurposed cigarette vending machines, 2016 (ongoing)
  • Doll Project, site-specific installation, 2016 (ongoing)
  • Portraits of Artists, Long Island City Queens. 55 Artists, 3 Years: Included in Photo Project of Long Island City Artists by Orestes Gonzalez, Long Island City, NY, 2012
  • Greenspace, Collaboration of Artists, Musicians & Dancers, Greenspace, Long Island City, NY, 2010
  • Living Shadows, site-specific exhibit, Astoria Park and Sean’s Place Playground (funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs through QCA), 2002
  • Shadows, site-specific exhibit, Citibank, Court Square, Long Island City, NY (funded by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs through QCA), 2001
  • Faces, site-specific exhibit, Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing, NY (funded by New York State Council on the Arts), 2000


AWARDS and RESIDENCIES

  • NYSCA/NYFA Artist as Entrepreneur Boot Camp, 2018 
  • Susan Kahn Award, National Association of Women Artists, 2007
  • Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, Ora Lerman Trust Foundation, Laceyville, PA, 2003
  • Individual Artist Support Grant, DCA through QCA, 2003
  • Individual Artist Support Grant, DCA through QCA, 2001
  • Individual Artist Support Grant, NYSCA through QCA, 2000
  • Queens College Educational Fellowship, 1998
  • Art Students League Joseph Hirsch Merit Scholarship, 1993
  • Harvard Graduate School of Education Scholarship, 1989


PANELiSTFeminine Identity, St. Joseph’s College, Patchogue, NY, 2020

  • Melting Pot, Project Diversity Queens, 2007
  • Insights into Suburbia, Opalka Gallery, Sage College, Albany, NY, 2007


CURATOR and JUROR

  • Juror, NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc. Emerging Curators Program, Brooklyn, NY, 2006, 2003
  • Curator, NURTUREart Multiples 2005, Spike Gallery, New York, NY, 2005
  • Juror, Queens Council on the Arts Members Exhibition, QTIP Galleries, Queens, NY, 2005
  • Curator, In The Face of Others, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY, 2004
  • Juror, NYSCA Funding, Queens Council on the Arts, Queens, NY, 2004
  • Curator, Queens Theater in the Park, Flushing, NY, 2003-2004


CATALOGUES, PUBLICATIONS and PRESS

  • USPS Art Project Mega Collaborator Artist Spotlight Interview, 2021
  • Portraits of Artists LIC by Orestes Gonzalez, 2011: https://player.vimeo.com/video/42360212
  • Patchogue Arts Biennial, Briarcliff College, Patchougue,NY, 2011
  • Money Magazine, “The Art of the Internet: how to surf your way to an enviable art collection” October 2007 
  • Melting Pot, Project Diversity Queens, 2007
  • Insights Into Suburbia, Opalka Gallery, Sage Colleges, Albany, NY, 2007
  • And Then 2004, volume 12, page 45, 2004
  • Take a Field Trip to an Art Museum Board Game, produced in conjunction with Ready, Set, Go! An Exhibition of Toys &Games in Art, Anchorage Museum of History and Art, 2003
  • Art Students League Catalogue, page 60, 1993-1994


SELECTED COLLECTIONS

  • Kim Manocherian
  • Friedman Brother's Mirrors
  • Art Connects New York
  • Selected Private Collections


TEACHING

  • Drawing Instruction, Islip Museum of Art, 2019
  • Art Instruction for Senior Center, Brentoood, West Islip and Ronkonkoma, NY
  • Visiting Artist, College of Staten Island, CUNY, Staten Island, NY, 2016
  • Visiting Artist, College of Staten Island, CUNY, Staten Island, NY, 2015
  • Woman's Studio Center, 2003, 2004 and 2005


SELECTED PRESS


Massey, Christina and Cris Sanhueza, "USPS Art Project Mega Collaborator Artist Spotlight Interview", 2021


Steinhauer, Jillian, "Hyperallergic, Massive 'Nasty Women' Art Show Raises 35K for Planned Parenthood Opening Night, January 13, 2017 (Image)


Shirvell, Bridget, “Art with a Message”, Long Island Pulse, May 12, 2014

Rogers, Pat, “Visual Diary Patchogue Arts Biennial” Hamptons Art Hub, November 2, 2011


Staff Writer, “Most Influential Exhibits Curated by David Gibson”, NY Art Marathon, 2011


Hunter, Lisa “The Art of the Internet: How to Surf Your Way to an Enviable Art Collection” Money Magazine, Vol. 36(10): 137-140, October 2007


Decker, Julie. “Keep Gaming Me, Museum Show Offers Charm and Whimsy for Adults, Too.” Anchorage Press, June 12-18, 2003, page 15


Resz, Heather. “Timeless Toys.” The Anchorage Chronicle. June 12, 2003, pages 6C-7C


Pawlowski, Jeanie. “The ‘Shadow’ Series.” Artspy, September/October 2001, page 2


Fox, Mark M. “Fragmenting the Old to Create the New.” Courier, October 17-23, 2001, page 53


Cote, David. “Creation Theory.” Time Out, October 12-19, 2000, pages 14-15

MacGowan, Carl. “Face to ‘Faces’ with City People.” Newsday, December 3, 2000, page G15


Kampel, Traci. “On a Law Firm’s Walls, Mysterious, Whimsical Impressions by an Artist.” Downtown Express, April 14-27, 1998, page 21


Kampel, Traci. “Paintings with Touch of Collage.” The Villager, April 1, 1998, page 23


Morales, Tina. “A Convergence, Not a Clash.” Newsday, January 26, 1997, page E15


REVIEWS

 

Artspy, Jeanie Pawlowski

 

The individual Paintings are stark and edgy, products of Spector’s fascination with elements of advertising and pop culture.

 

New York Arts

 

Maria Spector also features images of children in paintings that reflect both the unsullied optimism of youth and the burgeoning concerns of maturity. In these pictures the routine tasks of life are occasions for reflection and amusement.

 

Downtown Express, Traci Kampel


Mysterious, whimsical and even eerie at times, Spector’s works offer up just the right amount of information to allow superficial comprehension, while omitting enough to trigger the viewer’s own thought process.