Squeak Carnwath

Active in the Bay Area since the 70s, Squeak Carnwath (b. 1947, Pennsylvania) has developed a signature style that merges meticulously applied layers of oil paint with text, repeated symbolic iconography, and abstract patterns. Matte fields of color are adrift with passing thoughts, quips, or news excerpts, often partly submerged in the textured shuffle of erasures and additions. Despite a loose, improvisational appearance, there are secret moments of trompe l’oeil: paint disguised as pencil or charcoal, performing a wily dance across Carnwath’s expertly layered panels. The artist’s idea of process is all-inclusive, combining the physical making of the painting with her thoughts, life in the studio, and the world at large.

Carnwath received her MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA (1977). The artist has received numerous awards including a Lee Krasner Lifetime Achievement Award, the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award for Individual Artists from the Flintridge Foundation, and inducted into the National Academy of Design. Her work has been exhibited at several renowned national institutions, including the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR; Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA; Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI; among many others. Her work has also been included in exhibitions worldwide, such as the Ballinglen Museum of Art, Ballycastle, Ireland; Guanlan Printmaking Museum, Shenzhen, China; SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China; Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY; Fundacion Canal, Madrid, Spain; Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; MFA Hanoi, Vietnam; The Singapore Museum of Art, Singapore; Jakarta Arts Center, Jakarta, Indonesia; MFA Boston, Boston, MA; Alaska State Museum, Juneau, Alaska; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY. Her work is included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, among others. Carnwath is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a founding member and current president of the Artists' Legacy Foundation.