Mara Safransky Farrington

​Mara is a Portland, OR-based artist working in paint and pastel. Her practice is fueled by a desire to offer viewers engagement with the evocative qualities of color, shape, and texture.
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After growing up in the rural mountains of North Carolina and earning a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Mara moved to Los Angeles and began her professional art practice.

Since that time, her work has been included in group shows in New York and Los Angeles, acquired by private collectors, and sold by interior design-focused retailers.

Mara describes her heavily-layered oil paintings as occupying the space between abstract expressionism and color-field painting. She sees each as an invitation into a freely-associative experience—one she intends open the door to interpretation and reflection, in an ever-evolving conversation between artwork and viewer.

Rhode Island School of Design, BFA

2023 In The Deep End, Gallery 114, Portland, OR

2022 Apocalypse. Maybe, Gallery 114, Portland, OR

2020 Bated Breath, Gallery 114, Portland, OR

2019 Siren Nation Visual Arts Show, City Hall, Portland, OR

2012 27th National Exhibition, Slocumb Gallery, Johnston City, TN Juror: Dr. Gail Levin, former curator at the Whitney

2012 Group Show, Brenda Taylor Gallery, New York, NY

2011 Women Painter’s West Summer Show, Schomburg Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA

2011 Open Show, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2011 Annual Benefit Auction, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA

2010 Reaching Inside, Lark Gallery, Juror: Peter Frank, Art Critic/Chief Curator Riverside Art Museum

2010 Aurora: Holiday Art Sale, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA

2010 2010 Juried Open, Topanga Canyon Gallery, Topanga, CA
Juror: Peter Mays, Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825

2010 Gem, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA

2010 12th Annual Shikishi Exhibition, JCC Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2009 die Zeit of Drawing, Climate/Gallery, New York, NY

2009 Beautiful Dream, Julie Rico Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2007 Reunion: Create: Fixate 6th Anniversary Show, Los Angeles, CA

2007 9th International Collage Exhibit, New Plymouth, New Zealand

2007 Spring Ah...