"the threads that bind"

May 10, 2025—June 28, 2025 | Reception Saturday, May 10th, 4-6PM

James Harris Gallery is pleased to present our tenth solo exhibition by artist Mary Ann Peters. This show will mark the artist’s first exhibition at our gallery in Dallas. Peters is a multi-disciplined artist who makes conceptually responsive work tied to the Middle East. Using the unique perspective of a second generation Arab American, she uses a distanced but personal filter to interpret, and highlight dismissed or undermined current and historical narratives. Her work is research driven and employs painting, drawing, sculpture and installation. She has been a practicing artist and an artist activist for five decades.

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"tile and timber (nothing but the memory)" 2025
"city on its side" 2025
"relic" 2025
"in an instant" 2025
"blind (facing north)" 2025
"blind (facing east)" 2025
"blind (facing south)" 2025
"blind (facing west)" 2025
"impossible monument (the ties that bind)" 2023
"storyboard (factory girls)" 2023
"storyboard (double take)" 2023
"storyboard (Mount Lebanon)" 2023

Mary Ann Peters

“I work from the premise that images are never neutral and that they sustain layered meaning from the inception of an idea to the completed piece. Historical narratives, architecture, science, personal heritage, politics and questions of perception have all played a part in my thinking over the years.  I look for seemingly disparate elements that can coalesce and redefine a topic.  I have traveled extensively, most frequently in non-Western cultures. Traveling has informed my understanding of the global roots of aesthetics. It consistently defines for me those social practices that provide outlines for cultural inquiry, including which ethical questions should be considered or supported. In the end I work to the afterimage of the viewer and the potential discourse that might ensue.  The kiss of death for any artist is the work that no one can remember.”

- Mary Ann Peters

Mary Ann Peters lives and works in Seattle, WA  She received an MFA from the University of Washington in 1978. She has received numerous awards including an Art Matters Foundaton Grant, New York that allowed her to travel to Paris and Mexico City to research the migration from the Middle East after World War II, a grant from The New Foundation, Seattle in 2014,  a MacDowell Fellowship in 2010, a Jentel residency in 2009, the Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy (NIAUSI) residency in 2003 and the Neddy Fellowship from the Behnke Foundation in 2000. Collections include Microsoft, Seattle Art Museum, 4Culture, Tacoma Art Museum, and others.