My work with Words and Pictures goes back a long way. I’m an abstract painter with a background in language who has taught art, worked in museums, and painted signs.
I love working with both Words and Pictures on their own, but also putting them together, such as in book covers, sign painting, and web design.
Career Highlights
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019
Reclaiming Butterscotch, The Summit, Seattle, WA
2016
The Oak and the Cypress, Knutzen Family Theatre Gallery, Federal Way, WA
2011
Lavender Menace: Paintings by Maura McGurk in Response to Gay Bullying, Wauregan Gallery, Norwich, CT
Maternal Instinct: Painted Responses to Bullying, The Museum of Motherhood, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022
Engendered, Marketview Arts Gallery, York, PA
2012
Uncensored: Queer Art and the Church, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, The Annex, New York, NY
Mama Said: The Art and Artifacts of Wise Women, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID
2010
The Sketchbook Project, Traveling Exhibition (Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis)
2009
The Small, Villa Gaia, Seggiano, Italy
2008
A Month in Sicily, Marion Art Center, Marion, MA
2007
Boston Young Contemporaries, 808 Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA
2006
Arte Contemporanea, Galleria del Castello, Nocciano, Italy
Selected Awards
2020
da Vinci Eye Award Finalist, for cover art for independent books (Why I Never Finished My Dissertation, Laura Foley)
2016
Exhibition Grant, City of Federal Way, WA
2012
Seniors Partnering with Artists Citywide Grant, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY
2010
Artist’s Grant and Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2005
AHA! Grant, with Adams Grant funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, New Bedford, MA
Selected Publications
2019
Foley, Laura, Why I Never Finished My Dissertation, Headmistress Press, book cover, da Vinci Eye Award 2020 Finalist for cover art
2013
The Lavender Review, Issue 7, Reproduction
2011
Broadway Sings for Pride, album cover
The Norwich Bulletin, Norwich, CT, “Gay bullying subject of artist’s exhibition in Norwich,” by Kelly-Ann Franklin
2008
Southcoast247.com, The Makers: Maura McGurk, by Liz Tomasetti
Collections
The Museum of Motherhood, St. Augustine, FL
The Brooklyn Art Library, Brooklyn, NY
The DeCordova Museum Corporate Loan Program, Lincoln, MA (work rotates among Boston-area corporations)
Education
M.F.A. in Painting, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
B.F.A. in Painting, University of Connecticut, magna cum laude
B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese, University of California, Berkeley, with Honors