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Mary Lou Ferbert
“For over thirty years I have prowled Cleveland’s Flats, the vital heart of a city that once was a power. The engine of the Industrial Revolution...shipping, steel production, manufacturing.... in this unique arena I have always found inspiration for my painting.”
Following her formal education in the hard sciences Ferbert opted for wife, mother, home-maker and volunteer. In 1968 when her daughter left for college she made a commitment to art education at the Cleveland Institute of Art and a career as a painter. Concomitantly she embarked on a volunteer journey at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Such things as molten metal in steel mills and foundries, railroad cars, and industrial architecture claimed her attention. In the mid-eighties, imprinted by her volunteering, her artistic sensibilities shifted gears and her two passions...art and natural history...came crashing together. Eloquent portions of deteriorating warehouses, train engines, even fire plugs and sewer grates, served as compositional hosts to invading urban flora. She was captivated by the amazing, adaptable, aggressive aliens... the wildflowers! And they entered her work! The source of her inspiration...the culture of heavy industry...stayed the same, but the concepts for the paintings took on a whole new dimension...the survival of a fragile living organism in a hostile, biologically-sterile habitat.
“I have been single-minded in my devotion to watercolor. It makes my heart sing in spite of the vagaries inherent in the medium. The lyric quality of the pigment as it flows from a charged brush; the record of the process seen through the layered, transparent washes; the potential for power, energy, vitality and drama; the quiet gentleness: these attributes captivated me years ago and my enthusiasm has never waned. Most of the evolution of my oeuvre...subject, size, color, perspective, strength...can be attributed to my sincere belief that watercolor is a medium for major artistic expression.”
“Over time the conceptual grounding in Ferbert’s art has become more complex. Ferbert’s images are carefully selected for their implied, provocative symbolism. She searches for situations that are filled with tension and energy....Ordinary objects in Ferbert’s hands are transformed into expressive signposts, reflecting the artist’s inner vision of the environment’s mysteries.”
Tom E. Hinson, Former Curator of Contemporary Art Cleveland Museum of Art
“...her images convey a big-hearted affection for decaying industrial Cleveland, as well as a belief that beauty can be found in unconventional places. Her show is rare in its overall strength, ambition and consistent quality.”
Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 11, 1994
Review of Mary Lou Ferbert: Recent Paintings By Steven Litt, Art Critic
Ferbert has had solo exhibitions at The Bonfoey Company, Cleveland, OH 2005, 2001, 1994, 89, 81; Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, TN 1997; The Butler Institute of American Art l993-94; Gallery Madison 90, NYC 1987; Cleveland Play House Gallery l985; Great Lakes Theater Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland l985; and The Intown Club, Cleveland l983.
She is represented in the permanent collections of the American Numismatic Society; Butler Institute of American Art; Cleveland Museum of Natural History; El Paso Museum of Art; National Museum of Women in the Arts; and The Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University.
Ferbert participated in invitationals at the Butler Institute of American Art; Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art; Fairfield University; Hubbard Museum, Ruidoso, New Mexico; Huntsville Museum of Art; Knoxville Art Museum; Parkland College Art Gallery; Siena Heights University; Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art; Gallery B.I.A, Barcelona, Spain.
In Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club’s Annual Exhibitions she has been the Honored Member and also has received the CLWAC Medal of Honor and the Anna Hyatt Huntington Bronze Medal . Other selected juried exhibitions include: Audubon Artists; AWS ( Bronze Medal ); Butler Institute of American Art Midyear ( Honorable Mention ); Cleveland Museum of Art May Show ( Special Mention for Painting ); Knickerbocker Artists; National Academy of Design; National Association of Women Artists Exhibition at The Cultural Center and the Hellenic-American Union in Athens, Greece; and Watercolor U.S.A . (Juror’s Special Mention).
She is represented in public, corporate, and private collections across the country and in Europe.
Listings include:
Who’s Who in American Art ; Who’s Who of American Women ; and Biographical Encyclopedia of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers of the United States-Colonial to 2002.
Publications include:
Watercolor Winter Issue 2002; Splash 7, 5, 4, 2 , and 1, North Light Books; Glencoe Literature Readers Choose, 2000 and 2002 (edition of 100,000); The Art of Mary Lou Ferbert by Elizabeth McClelland, 1993; and the Public Television Documentary, Faces of Steel , 2001.
Contacts:
The Bonfoey Gallery
216-621-0178