Claudia DeMonte

Claudia DeMonte was born in 1947 in Astoria, New York.[7] She was raised in an ethnically diverse neighborhood where she had a traditional Italian upbringing and strong Catholic education.[7] Her father was an insurance broker and honorary mayor of Astoria before becoming a city councilman.[7] DeMonte's mother, Ammeda Heiss DeMonte, was an assistant buyer and “Miss Hub” for the Hub department store in Baltimore before she married and moved to New York where she became a community activist and Vice Chair of Community Board One.[7]

DeMonte received her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore in 1969 and her MFA from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1971.[8] During her time at university, DeMonte was influenced by art historian Ruth Watkins and textile artist Nell Sonnemann as both women were independent, well-traveled, tall, and had no children.[7]

The College of Santa Fe conferred an Honorary Doctorate on DeMonte in 2006.[6]

DeMonte married Ed McGowin, a fellow artist, in 1977.[9] She currently lives and works in New York City and Miami, Florida.

DeMonte became interested in conceptual art early in her career and was so impacted by Art Povera that she wrote a letter to Germano Celant asking to study with him.[9] While at college, she was expected to focus on creating traditional types of art. Instead she conceived interactive exhibits, in which she traded t-shirts with her name based on the Delmonte Logo, hand-decorated photos of herself, and objects that she collected.[9] Requiring audience participation in order to work, her trading shows proved highly successful with her exhibition at the Baltimore Museum breaking an "attendance record at the time."[9] Her first major break came when she was included in Jane Livingston's Liberation: Fourteen American Women Artists show that toured in Europe and Five Plus One, in which DeMonte was the "'Plus One'" as she was the only non-painter in the show.[9]

In 1976, DeMonte returned to "using [her] hands" and began to make dolls.[9] Her work was always "autobiographical" and "personal" as it often dealt with her family and growing up. That same year, DeMonte moved back to New York with McGowin after coming to the realization that the art scene in Washington, D.C. was not held in the same high regard as politics and was often seen as less than or "secondary."[9] As a New Yorker, she also missed the "excitement" and "anonymity" that the city provided.[10] While she had made connections, garnering interest and support in her work from the likes of gallerist Ron Feldman and Doug Davis after her one-person show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, she struggled to gain a foothold in the New York art scene.[11] There was a prevalent attitude that only New York museums and galleries carried any weight which DeMonte had not anticipated.[9]

In 1977, returning to Queens, DeMonte rented a studio at P.S. 1 that furthered her connection with the New York art world.[12][13] Her first significant press coverage came in the summer of 1980 after she had a reproduction in a group show.[9] Determined to succeed in the New York art scene, she continued to take part in group shows that were often held at "alternative spaces."[9] DeMonte's breakthrough finally came in 1983 after she joined Gracie Mansion’s successful new art gallery that was supportive of what she was trying to accomplish.[14]

By the mid-1980s, the East Village art scene was flourishing and DeMonte was exhibiting her work nationally and internationally.[9] During this time her artwork took on a new "universal" dimension while maintaining its deeply autobiographical qualities.[9] This artistic development was facilitated by the extensive travel DeMonte undertook with McGowin. In a 1991 Smithsonian interview with Liza Kirwin, DeMonte stated that during the proceeding ten years, they had visited 50 countries and that a trip to the Deep South around 1985 furthered their interest in folk art and influenced her work and the materials she used.[9]

DeMonte took on several notable projects in the 2000s. In 2000, she curated a collection of female artist works from 177 countries whose artwork depicted their personal understanding of what "woman" meant. Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art resulted in a 22-venue tour and a book published by Pomegranate.[15] From 2000-2007, DeMonte's touring exhibition Real Beauty: A Celebration of Diversity and Global Culture, a collection of 140 traditional, handmade dolls by woman artists from around the world, explored the beauty standards and broader culture of each artist as well as the impact of globalism and mass-production on such objects.[16][17]

Pomegranate released Claudia DeMonte in 2009 to accompany a retrospective tour of her work.[18] The career monograph contained an essay by Eleanor Heartney, a contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress. The foreword was by president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund.

DeMonte taught at the University of Maryland for 33 years. During her tenure, she was a recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award in 1997 and the Students Award for Excellence in Teaching.[19][20] She was named Professor Emerita when she retired in 2004.[21] From 1980 until 1990, DeMonte was also in charge of the Art Workshop program at the New School for Social Research.

Claudia DeMonte has more than 100 solo and 500 group exhibitions. Her work is also held in numerous private, public, and corporate collections around the world.[22][23][24]

DeMonte has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards.[24][21]

• 2014 Winner, The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt for “Golden Egg,” New York City[54][55]
• 2014 “Best in Feminist Art & Scholarship” for the exhibition “La Forza del Destino” by the CAA Committee on Women in the Arts, New York[55]
• 2006 Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris, Causa, College of Santa Fe. NM
• 2005 Professor Emerita, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• Grant, Ennessi Foundation, Saudi Arabia
• Grant, Cantor Family Foundation, New York
• 2003 Art Award, Mobile Museum of Art, AL
• 1999 Grant, Anchorage Foundation Inc. of Texas, Houston. TX
• Arts Award Grant, Creative and Performing, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• Arts Award, Euro-American Women’s Council, Athens, Greece
• 1998 Design Award for "Installation of The Wheel of Justice by Claudia DeMonte & Ed McGowan," City of New York[56]
• 1997 Distinguished Scholar/Teacher, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
• 1989 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Sculpture
• Ariana Foundation for the Arts, Percent for Art
• Cite Des Arts Residency, Paris, France (date unknown)[57]
• U.S. Representative, International Women's Art Conference, Kingston, Jamaica (date unknown)[57]

• 2006-08 Commitment to Valor, Courageous Rescue, Bravery for Others, and Heroic Protectors, Broward County Fire Rescue, Florida Cultural Society, Ft. Lauderdale, FL[58]
• 2004-06 Santa Rosa Fountain, commissioned for the city of Santa Rosa by New Mexico State Arts, Santa Rosa, NM[58]
• 2002-04 We Are One, University of Northern Iowa, Iowa City, IA[59][17]
• 2001 Untitled, commissioned by Peter Marino, Architect, PLLC, Palm Beach, FL[58]
• 1998 Socorro Wheel of History, commissioned by New Mexico State Arts, Socorro, NM[60][17]
• Wheel of Justice, commissioned by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Queens Supreme Court, Flushing Meadows[61][62]
• 1993 Animal Count, commissioned by Percent for Art Program of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs/School Construction Authority, Queens[58]
• 1992 Fantasy Travels, Prudential Life Insurance, Parsippany, NJ[58]
• Claudia DeMonte Ceramic Tableware, Grazia Studios, Deruta, Italy[58]
• 1990 Shrine to Learning, Clarendon Public Library, commissioned by Brooklyn Public Library System, Percent for Art Program of the New York City and Department of Cultural Affairs, NY[58]
• 1984 Untitled, sculpture, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Crystal City, VA[58]
• 1981 Travel Fantasy, Prudential Life Insurance, Parsippany, NJ[58]
• 1972 Untitled, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA[58]
• 1970 Mural, Bladen Hall, Prince George’s Community College, Largo, MD Mural, Astoria Park, Queens, New York City Park Department[58]

• Official website