Throughout her prolific career, Mary Obering (b. 1937 in

Shreveport, Louisiana; d. 2022 New York, NY) brought

profound innovation to minimalist painting, marrying her

interest in Renaissance Art with abstraction. The artist

ushered in unexpected materials, including gold leaf and

egg tempera, to balanced compositions inspired by her

interest in science and the landscape tradition. Obering

studied experimental psychology at Harvard under B.F.

Skinner, and received an MFA at the University of Denver,

before relocating to New York City in 1971, at the behest of

her close friend Carl Andre. Within the years after her move

to New York, she would present a solo exhibition at Artists

Space (1973), curated by Andre, and her paintings in the

second ever Whitney Biennial (1975).

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Obering remained in New York throughout her life,

eventually splitting her time between SoHo and Puglia,

Italy, where she continued to research the arts of the Italian

Renaissance and Baroque era. It is through this period that

she would develop an iconic and singular style, presented

by the most intrepid gallerists in New York, including John

Weber, Annina Nosei, and Julian Pretto. Throughout her

long career, she kept close associations with the Minimalists

of her generation and counted Andre, Marcia Hafif, Robert

Ryman, and Donald Judd amongst her friends.