About

Bio

Photo of MJ Connors Davison in her home studio.
 
 
MJ started early as a mixed media collage artist using materials that came through her carpenter father and craft-making mother. She received a BFA in Crafts at Kent State University, Ohio. Fine art and fabric design formed her foundation applied to both paper and fabric-based collage. MJ was among the inaugural group to receive a MFA in the Book Arts and Printmaking program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Here, narrative content gained importance in her artworks. As a post-grad, MJ worked at The Fabric Workshop and taught paper- and bookmaking throughout the greater Philadelphia area. Her teaching continued at The Center for Book Arts in NYC and has extended into venues of the greater San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR areas.
Her various bodies of mixed media collage works have been exhibited in local, regional, and traveling shows. Permanent collections include The Victoria and Albert Museum, SFMOMA, MoMA, The Smithsonian Libraries, many museums, centers of higher education, and private patrons across North America. The gains of her personal evolution as an artist are shared through teaching workshops, curating exhibits, and accepting commissions focused on mixed media collage.

SELECT EXHIBITIONS

  • Hoffman Center for The Arts, “Indigo”. Manzanita, OR. Winter 2024
  • Marin MOCA,“There is Magic Here”. Juried. Novato, CA. Fall 2023
  • Kolaj Fest, “Pixel Party” Animated collage. Juried. New Orleans, LA. Summer 2023
  • World Collage Day “Exquisite Community” Facilitated collaborative group show, Portland, Eugene, and Milwaukie, OR. Spring 2021, ’22, ’23  
  • Shift Gallery, “Reconciling Masculinity”. Juried. Seattle, WA. Spring 2023
  • Collage Artists of America, “Internal Dialogues” Juried. https://sfvacc.org/ Autumn 2022
  • Portland State University, School of Architecture, “Corporeal Gestures” Juried. Spring 2022
  • www.urbanartnetwork.com, Co-Created Group “Heart” Show. Winter 2021, 1st Thursdays Street Gallery, Portland, OR. Summer 2021, ’22
  • Milieu, Solo Collage Shows, Portland, OR. Spring 2018, ’19, Fall 2023 
  • The Art Hall @Cedarwood, Solo Show “Color & Light”, Group Shows, Portland, OR. Winter 2015, 2017 —23 
  • Portland Waldorf School, Group Shows, Milwaukie, OR. Fall 2011-2019
  • Lake Oswego Center for the Arts, Lake Oswego, OR. Summer 2018
  • Prior select venues include:  1st tour of Lollapalooza, Waterloo Village, Stanhope, NJ,  Banff Centre Library in Alberta, Canada, Smithsonian Institute Libraries, The Drawing Center NYC, The National Museum of Women in The Arts, and The Print Center of Philadelphia.

SELECT COLLECTIONS

  • SAIC Flaxman Library, Chicago, IL
  • Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada
  • Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA
  • Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Washington
  • The Banff Centre Library, Banff, Alberta, Canada
  • The Brooklyn Museum of Art Brooklyn, NY
  • The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dickson Art Center, UCLA, CA
  • The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
  • Kent State University, Kent, OH
  • Library of Congress, Washington, DC
  • Marvin & Ruth Sackner Archives of Visual & Concrete Poetry, Miami, FL
  • Messiah College, Grantham, PA
  • Mills College, Berkeley, CA
  • MoMa, New York, NY
  • The New York Public Library, New York, NY
  • Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
  • Reed College, Portland, OR
  • RIT, Rochester, NY
  • Scripps College, Claremont, CA
  • SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA
  • Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX
  • The Smithsonian Institute Library, Washington, DC
  • The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
  • Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA
  • University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
  • Vassar College Library, Poughkeepsie, NY
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
  • Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
  • Yale University, New Haven, CT

Classroom

Group of teen participants show their finished collages.
Collage group@Julianne's – Version 3
Version 2
Group of women participants of a collage class at True North studios.

For decades, MJ has been teaching mixed media art.

In Philadelphia, PA:
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Tyler School of Art
The Historical Society of Philadelphia
Historic Rittenhouse Town
Prints In Progress
In New York City:
The Center for Book Arts
In San Francisco, CA:
Private Residences
In Portland, OR:
Private Residences
True North Studios
Lajja Studio
Milieu Collective
Windermere Realty 
Contact MJ

REPRESENTATION

Current

Book Arts:

Previous

Custom Hand-Painted Wallcovering:

  • Barbara Beckman Showroom, SF, CA
  • John Boone Inc., New York, NY 
  • Callard & Osgood, Chicago, IL

PUBLICATIONS

  • Collage Artists Trading Cards, Pack #9, Kolaj Magazine, curated. Winter 2024
  • North Coast Squid, Issue#9, Juried.Fall/Winter 2023/24
  • Cut Loose #2, Twin Cities Collage Collective, Fall 2023
  • North Coast Squid, Issue #9, Fall 2023
  • Kolaj Magazine #36, “Exquisite Community” article, Fall 2022
  • Corporeal Gestures Catalog by Clive Knights, @lulu.com, Spring 2022
  • CutMeUp Magazine, Issue 5, Summer 2020
  • TheArtHall.Wordpress.com, Cedarwood Waldorf School, Winter 2015-20
  • Heartbeat, Portland Waldorf School, 2011-2018
  • Lilipoh, Issue 88/vol 22, Summer 2017
  • Sunset Magazine, February 1999
  • Smithsonian Magazine, June 1995

EDUCATION

  • Workshops in Painting, Light, and Color with:  Pamela Whitman, Laura Summer, Robin Lieberman, Christopher Guilfoil, Zvi Svir, Cheri Munske, and Jennifer Thompson, Portland, OR and Crestone, CO

  • Sacred Geometry Workshop with Patrick Marooney, Portland, OR

  • University of the Arts,  MFA Book Arts / Printmaking, Philadelphia, PA 

  • Independent Study in Papermaking with Bobbie Lippman, Philadelphia, PA

  • Kent State University, Kent, OH — BFA Crafts, French Minor

  • Blossom Festival Fibers Program with Janice Lessman-Moss Kent, OH

Awards

  • Fellowship in Photography Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation 
  • Residency,  Solo Exhibition, Women’s Studio Workshop 
Evidence of Attendants
4 x 7 x 1"

Contact

MIXED MEDIA ARTIST | DESIGNER | TEACHER