ABOUT M. ANNENBERG
In an era of fake news – the actual problem is that real news, especially climate related news, is being suppressed by major media companies (verified by Public Citizen’s report Storm of Silence and Media Matters’ on the IPCC’s 14 minutes of coverage).
We are living through a new type of battle – attacked by misinformation and the omission of information. This is a new kind of propaganda, that I have labelled, inverse propaganda. What we don’t know can hurt us. We are in the fight of our lives.
There is an ongoing ferocious war on science and scientists, not seen since the inquisition of Galileo. In this sense, Annenberg’s installations and paintings fall into the genre of anti-war art.
Annenberg’s activism lies in combining art and journalism – comparing the importance of climate studies by major scientific organizations – and how they are or are not reported. Her mixed media and conceptual artworks ironically employ the tools of investigative journalism to critique the absence of the presence of critically important news stories.
ARTIST PROFILE
M. Annenberg is a Conceptual artist. Her paintings, sculptures, installations and videos focus on under-reported stories in American media, from 9/11 to climate change.
When she was represented by Flomenhaft Gallery, she organized a panel there with Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Director of NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, entitled, “Art, Activism and Global Warming”. She co-curated an exhibit with Eleanor Flomenhaft, entitled EARTH SOS, at Flomenhaft Gallery, with Dr. James Hansen former Director, NASA, GISS, as guest speaker. Recently, Dr Hansen, environmental writer Bill McKibben and author Geoff Dembicki, were guests at Mayday! EAARTH, which she curated. Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt, Director, NASA, GISS, will be the guest speaker at the panel accompanying the exhibit, Biophilia; In Excelsis, at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, with artists Paul Miller aka D.J. Spooky, Eleanor Goldstein and Susan Hoffman Fishman.
Princeton University’s Bernstein Gallery hosted a lecture that Annenberg gave in conjunction with her one artist exhibit, News/ Not News. She has also been a guest panelist at the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, Artists Talk on Art, NYC, Soho House and the UN Program of the Women’s Caucus for Art. Her essays have been published by Project Censored, Seven Stories Press.
Annenberg’s paintings are in the permanent collections of museums, such as, The Vilna Goan Jewish State Museum, Lithuania, Yad Vashem Art Museum, Israel, Ben Uri Gallery & Museum, England and The Florida Holocaust Museum. The BBC included her artwork in the documentary, The Private Life of a Masterpiece:” The Third of May”. She was named by Origin Magazine as one of America’s Top 100 Creatives in 2015.
Annenberg’s recent artwork deconstructs the reporting of five major climate studies – The Emissions Gap Report, 2019, The Hindu Kush Himalayan Assessment, 2019, The National Climate Assessment, 2018, the Paris Climate Treaty, 2015, and the UN’s 5th IPCC Report, 2014, in order to answer the question – why does 40% of the American public disbelieve in human induced climate change due to the burning of the fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal? -because these studies were under reported. The US public is distracted by sound bites, while real news is being withheld. This is inverse propaganda – the omission of vital scientific facts, leaving the public bewildered. We are becoming a compromised democracy.
| SOLO SHOWS | |
| 2023 | Online: www.museummilecontemporary.org |
| 2022 | Maine Jewish Museum, Portland, Maine, News/ Not News |
| 2017 | Bottleworks Gallery Seeing Beyond: New York City in Cambria City, Johnstown, PA |
| 2015 | Fairleigh Dickinson University, College Art Gallery, Teaneck, New Jersey |
| 2013 | Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset, Maine |
| 2013 | Princeton University, Bernstein Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey |
| 2010 | Boricua College, New York, New York |
| 2003 | Office of State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, New York, New York |
| 1997 | Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, Maitland, Florida |
| 1995 | The Rockland Center for Holocaust Studies, N.Y., Spring Valley, New York |
| 1982 | Alternative Space at Westbroadway Gallery, New York, New York |
| GROUP EXHIBITIONS | |
| 2024 | Biophilia: In Excelsis, Climate Imaginarium, Governor’s Island, NY |
| 2024 | Biophilia: In Excelsis, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New Haven, Connecticut |
| 2022 | Mayday! EAARTH, Ceres Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2022 | Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, NY |
| 2021 | Earth on the Edge, Ceres Gallery, New York City |
| 2020 | FEMA:Fear Environmental Management Atrocities, Icebox Project Space, Philadelphia, PA |
| 2020 | Terra InFirma, The Breman Museum Virtual Exhibit, Atlanta, Georgia |
| 2019 | Endangered Earth, Ceres Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2019 | Relative Relations, Dr. Bernard Heller Museum New York, New York |
| 2018 | Exposure,Ceres Gallery, NYC |
| 2018 | Terra inFirma, Dr. Bernard Heller Museum, New York City |
| 2017 | We Need To Talk, Petzel Gallery, New York City |
| 2017 | Unnatural Election: Artists Respond to the 2016 US Presidential Election, Kimmel Galleries, NYU, New York City |
| 2016 | EARTH SOS, Flomenhaft Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2016 | Center for Maine Contemporary Art 2016 Biennial, Rockland, Maine |
| 2015 | Invitational, Lesley Heller Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2014 | Women Only, Flomenhaft Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2013 | Women Call for Peace: Global Vistas, Anya & Andrew Shiva Gallery New York, New York |
| 2013 | Petroleum Paradox, Narrows Center for the Arts, Fall River, Massachusetts |
| 2012 | Artists On The Stump, Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, Massachusetts |
| 2012 | Context, Barnard’s Kraft Center, New York, New York |
| 2012 | Petroleum Paradox, Denise Bibro Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2012 | Red October Chocolate Factory, Moscow, Russia |
| 2011 | Invitational, Leslie Heller Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2011 | No Comment, Nexus, New York, New York |
| 2011 | The 9 -11 Decade: Fourteen Artists Remember, Westbeth Gallery Annex, New York New York |
| 2011 | Loft in the Red Zone, House of JP Morgan, New York New York |
| 2010 | Hidden and Homeless, The London Jewish Museum Of Art, London, England |
| 2009 | Raandesk Gallery, New York, New York |
| 2008 | Dance of the Doomed Puffin Room Gallery, New York, New York 5 Years: Artists Reflect on the War in Iraq Java Street Studios, Brooklyn, New York |
| In The Beginning, The Women’s Museum, Dallas, Texas | |
| 2007 | The Square Foot Show, Art Gotham, New York, New York |
| 2006 | Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset, Maine |
| 2005 | A Closer Look: Realities of Our Times, Pierro Gallery, South Orange, New Jersey |
| 2005 | Tikkun Olam: To Repair the World, Makor, New York, New York |
| 2004 | War, Peace and Civil Liberties, Berkeley Art Center, California |
| 2004 | 2004 Westport Arts Center, Westport, Connecticut |
| 2002 | Hatikvah Holocaust Education & Resource Center, Springfield, Massachusetts |
| 2002 | The Puffin Room, War New York, New York |
| 2002 | Reflections on the Holocaust, Manhattan Borough President’s Office, New York, New York |
| 2002 | The Ohio State University Hillel, Columbus Ohio |
| 2002 | Exit Art, Reactions, New York, New York |
| 2001 | Boothbay Region Art Foundation, Boothbay Harbor, Maine |
| 2001 | New Century Artists, Inc, Reflections on the Holocaust, New York, New York |
| 1999 | Red Chair Gallery, MO. Tackling Meaning: The Curator’s Playbook Kansas City, Missouri |
| 1997 | Butler Institute of American Art, 61st Annual Midyear Exhibition, Youngstown, Ohio |
| 1993 | Limner Gallery, N.Y.C. — Highlights ‘93 New York, New York |
| 1987 | 55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York, New York |
| 1984 | Westbroadway Gallery, New York, New York |
| 1983 | Westbroadway Gallery, New York, New York |
| 1977 | National Arts Club, New York, New York |
| AWARDS | |
| 2019 | Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award |
| 1995 | Who’s Who of American Women |
| 1988 | Who’s Who Among Young American Professionals |
| 1977 | Purchase Prize, Art Students League, New York, New York |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | |
| Canvas Rebel, Meet M. Annenberg, CanvasRebel.com, May 2024 | |
| Embracing the Earth, Reflecting the Science, April 9, 2024 | |
| Brian Slattery, New Haven Independent, Artists Open Path to Grappling with Climate Change, April 2, 2024 | |
| “The Silencing of Science in the American Press” (Maine Arts Journal) Summer 2023: In Balance / Imbalance | |
| Jim McDermott, Earth Beat, National Catholic Reporter, An NYC Exhibit Shows the Beauty and Blight of Earth’s Climate Today, Dec. 22,2022 | |
| Jim McDermott, Earth Beat, National Catholic Reporter, NY exhibit ‘Earth on the Edge’ weaves wonder, dread into mesmerizing art, Dec 22, 2021 | |
| Project Censored’s Mickey Huff interviews artist and curator, M. Annenberg on the exhibit, “Earth on the Edge”. | |
| Karen M. Gutfreund, “Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump”, USA | |
| Goose River Anthology, 2020, Edited by Deborah J. Benner, Goose River Press, Waldoboro, Maine | |
| Ori Z. Soltes, “Modern Jewish Art: Definitions, Problems, and Opportunities”, 2019, Brill Press | |
| Eleanor J. Bader, Lilith.org, “Creating Art for our Dire Times” June 15, 2017 | |
| M. Annenberg featured in March issue of Origins Magazine, issue # 23: 100 Top Creatives. | |
| Dan Bischoff, Princeton Exhibit takes on what passes for Journalism in Today’s World The Star-Ledger, Dec. 23, 2012 | |
| Ilene Dube, The Decline of Journalism Portrayed in Princeton Art Exhibit, The Artful Blogger, newsworks.org | |
| Project Censored 2014, Seven Stories Press | |
| London Jewish Cultural Center, www.theholocaustexplained.org | |
| Certain Circuits, Volume 2.1, 2012, page 5 | |
| Drew, Constance (2011) Spotlight on Success: Marcia Annenberg, NY Women’s Business Examiner, Sept. 15 | |
| Swartz, Anne, (2011) Loft in the Red Zone. Artists Commemorate 9/ 11. Art Fairs Intl., NY issue #15. | |
| Ann Lauterbach, What is a Day?, The Brooklyn Rail, March, 2006, P. 53 | |
| Dan Bishoff, Putting Social Consciousness To Canvas, The Star Ledger, June 3-9, 2005 | |
| Ori Z. Soltes, The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust, University Press of America | |
| The Private Life of a Masterpiece III Episode Title: The Third of May A Fulmar Production for BBC 2 & BBC Worldwide | |
| The Holocaust and Other Genocides:History, Representation, Ethics Edited by Helmut W. Smith, Vanderbilt University Press | |
| Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Volume #1,page 12. ABC-CLIO | |
| Cynthia Brody Bittersweet Legacy, University Press of America | |
| Heather Lustfeldt The Exhibit as Art Clinic at Red Chair Review: New Features and Art in Kansas City, Vol.2, No.2, January. 2000 | |
| Dorit Cohen, Will There Be A New World Order? | |
| Laura Stewart, From Terror, Terrifying Images Orlando Weekly, January 2-8, 1997 | |
| Richard H. Gleick, Artist Brings Stark Reality into Focus at HMREC Exhibit The Heritage, February 28, 1997 | |
| COLLECTIONS | |
| Florida Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg. | |
| The Art Museum at Yad Vashem, Israel | |
| London Jewish Museum of Art, London | |
| Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, Lithuania | |
| Center for the Study of Political Graphics Kyle Matthews, CA | |
| Art Students League, New York City | |
| Boricua College, New York City | |
| The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. | |
| Dr. Stephen Feinstein | |
| The Rockland Center for Holocaust Studies, Spring Valley, New York | |
| Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, New York | |
| Christopher Monahan, New York, New York | |
| EDUCATION | |
| Art Students League of New York ’77-’82 | |
| New York University, M.A. 1982 | |
| City College of New York, B.A. 1972 | |
Radio Programs
Project Censored Radio, KPFA, Climate change and the Oil Industry’s Obstructionist Policies, Jan. 2, 2023. M. Annenberg interviews Dr. James Hansen, NASA, GISS, environmental journalist Bill McKibben and author Geoff Dembicki, The Petroleum Papers
Project Censored Radio, KPFA, Earth on the Edge, January 3, 2022.
Interview with curator M. Annenberg and artist Angela Manno.
WPWL, Pawling Public Radio, Jennifer Rosvally, Art Chat, Sept. 23, 2017
WBAI, Radio interview with M. Annenberg by Janet Coleman and David Pozer, January 14, 2013
Panels & Talks
The Society for Ethical Culture, New York City, February 27, 2022
M. Annenberg – “What Don’t We Know and Why Don’t We Know It?”
ATOA Panel, National Arts Club, New York City, “The Artists Role In Society”
February 23, 2016
UN NGO/CSW 60 Conference, Commission on the Status of Women, 2016, New York City, M. Annenberg speaks about “What Don’t We Know and Why Don’t We Know It?
Flomenhaft Gallery, New York City, “Art, Activism and Global Warming”. M. Annenberg moderates panel with the director of NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Dr. Gavin Schmidt and artists from the exhibition, Earth SOS, co-curated by Eleanor Flomenhaft and M. Annenberg,
January 28, 2015.
Flomenhaft Gallery, New York City, M. Annenberg presents artist talk “Truth or Dare”
April 22, 2015
Bernstein Gallery, Princeton School of Public & International Affairs, New Jersey, Artist talk, “News/ Not News”, February 3, 2013, on the occasion of the exhibition, “News/ Not News”.
Boricua College, New York City, April 28, 2010. Artist talk, “News/ Not News”
on the occasion of the exhibition, “News/ Not News”.
Curated Exhibitions
2012 Petroleum Paradox – with the Women’s Caucus for Art – Juror/ art critic/ Eleanor Heartney, Denise Bibro Gallery, New York City
2016 – EARTH SOS – co-curator with Director & Owner Eleanor Flomenhaft,
Flomenhaft Gallery, New York City
2019 – Endangered Earth, co-curator Ann Shapiro, Ceres Gallery, New York City
2021 – Earth on the Edge, Ceres Gallery, New York City
2022 – Mayday! EAARTH, Ceres Gallery, New York City
2024 – Biophilia; In Excelsis – Yale Institute of Sacred Music, CT
M.Annenberg’s current paintings, sculpture, installations & videos focus on under-reported stories in American media: from 9/ 11, to climate change, to the loss of our constitutional protections. A new form of propaganda, which leaves the viewer perplexed, is the absence of critical data, in major media outlets, affecting one’s ability to comprehend contemporary experience, almost invisible to the public eye.
M. Annenberg was invited to speak at Princeton University’s
Bernstein Gallery, in conjunction with her exhibit, News/ Not News. Her panel at Flomenhaft Gallery, entitled, Art, Activism and Global Warming included Dr. Gavin Schmidt, Director, NASA, Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Her talks have been recorded and are available for viewing on her web-site.
M. Annenberg has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States, including Flomenhaft Gallery, NYC, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the Red Chair Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri, The Pierro Gallery of South Orange, New Jersey, Princeton University’s Bernstein Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey and the Women’s Museum in Dallas, Texas.
M. Annenberg’s paintings are in the permanent collections of the London Jewish Museum of Art, England; the Yad Vashem Art Museum in Jerusalem, Israel; the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania and the Florida Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg,USA.
M. Annenberg’s artwork is discussed in the BBC documentary The Private Life of a Masterpiece III in the episode “The Third of May”, which examines the history, significance and contemporary resonance of Goya’s influence. Images of her work have been published as cover art for The Holocaust and Other Genocides: History, Representation, Ethics edited by Helmut Walser Smith (Vanderbilt University Press) and Project Censored, 2014, edited by Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth (Seven Stories Press).
M. Annenberg studied at the Art Students League with Isaac Soyer and Robert Beverly Hale and later received an M.A. in Studio Art from New York University.
M. Annenberg has been currently named by ORIGIN Magazine as one of the top 100 Creative Artists of 2015 in North America.
