Mary Chang Gallery

Mary Chang Biography

Mary was born on 1950, in lower Manhattan, New York. She was raised by her parents Chang and Pauline, in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were of vast cultural diversity and age difference. Her father, Chang ShenTak, was born in Mainland China in 1889, a time of great turmoil. He arrived in the United States during the mid-1940s and found work as a porter. Mary's mother, Pauline Dougall, who was of mixed cultural background, was born in 1925 in Harlem, New York. Her mother was devoted to her family, raising both Mary and her sister, Louise.

Her maternal grandmother Erienne was a strong influence in her life. Her love for the arts along with the support of her mother and father afforded Mary and her sister Louise to take dance lessons, music classes, and frequent visits to the museum and theater. "My father stressed the importance of a spiritual inner root, and it became a seed in me. It was the most valuable gift. Despite financial hardships, our economic situation did not define us. We never felt like we were without," Mary remembers.

Mary developed an interest in visual art during junior high school; her interest continued throughout high school when she studied fashion design. Although becoming an actress was her first ambition and love, developed while attending the High School of Fashion Industries, she found herself thinking of a career in fashion design. By graduation, Mary decided to become an artist and study fine arts. Post-graduation, she attended the School of Visual Arts. Mary used this time to explore her interest in literature, poetry, and music. During this time, she also gained greater political awareness of the climate in America. This would later influence her work as an artist and began her journey into questioning and discovering personal inner exploration.

Mary had her first child in 1971. There was a pause in her career as a painter from 1972 to 1999. In between that time, Mary decided to revisit her first passion and study and work in the theater in 1986. She realized the line of the distance between her process in theater and painting is the same. The tools interchange in her practice; she creates and builds the work, bringing the foundation of learned technique and spontaneity into the work.

Mary returned to painting in 1999 when asked by her dear friend and mentor, Onnie Millar, to be part of the exhibition titled “The Tree” at Skylight Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. In this show, she presented her installation titled “Doors," a series of three one-hundred-year-old doors. Her process of scraping off layers of paint, leaving residue from years gone by, and then painting on both sides of the door creates a conversation with the remaining layers of paint and markings from the past. Mary was introduced to print medium in 2005 while working with the late master printer Sheila Marbain at Maurel Studios and master printer Sheila Goloborotko at Golobortko’s Studio. Her work has been exhibited in various galleries, museums, and cultural centers throughout the Tri-state Area, Massachusetts, California, Brazil, and The Netherlands