Through February 14, 2027 This exhibition marks SOLA’s 10th Anniversary and celebrates the creative legacies of ten years of SOLA Award recipients — mature women artists whose vision, mastery, and resilience continue to shape Washington’s cultural landscape.
Traces explores female identity, lineage, and erasure, questioning what remains and what disappears. My foremothers’ maiden names drift upward, lost through marriage and drawn in wire like script from a family journal. Similar to chasing ghosts, each name leads elsewhere—to another lineage, another father. The work moves between loss and continuity while gesturing toward reclamation.
The pelvic bone Traces is accompanied by a sound work, Eternal, a repeating composition that mirrors the life cycle. This seven-minute audio loop, featuring heartbeat, tap dancing by my daughter Sammy Coss, and saxophone and musical composition by my daughter Roxy Coss, embodies cycles of loss, continuity, and regeneration. You can hear the soundtrack here
The Space Columbia City September 24th – October 24th 3820 S Ferdinand St #102, Seattle, WA 98118
Refract: Local Frequencies offers artwork by a selection of regional artists working in and around glass, bringing together a range of approaches shaped by material, process, and place. Presented at The Space in Columbia City as part of Refract Seattle.
Opening: Thursday September 24th Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Saturday 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM Special Event: Sunday October 18th, 11:00 AM -4:00 PM In conjunction with the South Seattle Studio tours during REFRACT Seattle, come see the exhibit, meet the artists, talk shop, and see photos and video of the artists studios and process.
Philadelphia: February 7 through December 31, 2025. Fifteen artists are featured in the second exhibition in NLM’s Year of Free Speech, a series of three exhibitions and related programming exploring freedom of speech as a cornerstone of democracy.
ArtX Contemporary THIRTY YEARS, A THOUSAND STORIES Celebrating three decades of global art and cultural exchange. A lively group exhibition that gathers artists whose diverse practices and perspectives form a vivid tapestry of the gallery’s living narrative. 30th Anniversary Exhibition December 4, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Resilience Oct 17th – 14th Nov 2025 group show curated by artist Anna Macrae “Resilience” is a celebration of the human capacity to withstand adversity and emerge stronger, wiser, and more creative.
Persistent Voices: Six Artist’s Perspectives, co-curated by artist Susan Napack and Kathleen Dinges Rice, is a powerful exhibition of six artists who center their art practice on the complexity of being human, especially the social, political and
personal experiences and ramifications of living as a female in our time. Working with humor, compassion and grace in a variety of media, the artists mine their own stories and explore those of others touching on aspects of history, motherhood, body autonomy, women’s societal roles, and mythologies.
Emerge is the entry sculpture on an art trail at Piper, a new Redmond development adjacent to Marymoor Park. It transforms a column into a tree, in essence transforming the built environment into the natural environment. The cast bronze willow catkins are housed in podlike forbidden fruit honoring the namesake tree Hooker’s Willow. (the previous classification name was Piper’s Willow, the name of the development).
Please Touch: Together, Breaking Barriers challenges the traditional boundaries of art appreciation by inviting visitors to engage with artwork through touch. Presented by Revision Arts at ARTS at King Street Station Oct. 3, 2024 – Jan. 4, 2025 – See Birth of Venus here
The VestibuleSeptember 7- October 5 Mana Mehrabian, an Iranian artist living in Eastern Washington, and Seattle-based artist Mary Coss investigate personal and ancestral migrations through sculpture and installation art.
The Process of Making, April 14-August 11 at Aljoya Mercer Island Cross Pollination, July at Shift Gallery, with Karey Kessler
The Fl!ght Gallery show Purple like a bruise juxtaposes the works of artists from Washington and Texas, two states that are often positioned on either end of a political spectrum described in terms of left and right or red and blue. The title refers to political columnist and anthropologist Sarah Kendzior’s statement, “the United States is not red or blue, it’s purple like a bruise.” The artworks explore issues that gravely impact the lives of U.S citizens, from gun violence, reproductive and LGBTQ rights, to war and climate change. Curated by Fl!ght Gallery founder Justin Parr, the show includes works by San Antonio-based artists Aaron Muñoz, Ed Saavedra, José Villalobos and Seattle-based artists, Casey Gregory, Sean Hennessy, Charles Mudede, Holly Ballard Martz, Mary Coss, Paul D McKee and Tommy Gregory. In the summer, the show travels to Seattle, Washington.
Left: Obelisk to 26,313 A memorial to the number of pregnancies resulting from rape in the state of Texas during the first 18 months after abortion was banned. *Journal of American Medical Association
Time Capsule, February 24 – March 9 at the Vestibule
Funded through Bellevue College Office of Sustainability, artists partnered with scientists and students to research and develop new artwork that explores a climate justice issue that considers both ecological and social ethics. Exhibit, curation and catalogue authorship.
Artist Mary Coss discusses her installation with translation by artist Jodi Sandford at Press Conference
Migrazione/Migration opened September 3, 2022 at Museo civico di Palazzo della Penna in Perugia, Italy. This exhibit of sister cities Seattle and Perugia was a joint effort by a group of artists representing both cities. The juried exhibit covered artist costs including travel, shipping, and materials. Mary Coss exhibited The Shape of Passage which included a poem written in both languages integrated into an ethereal installation made from Tulle. It was covered by local press and television.
Opening reception 7:00 – 8:30 pm July 8, 2022. Visits by appointment only: Monday – Friday 10:00 am – 5:30 pm. Call to schedule: 206-634-0919 for the opening reception and following visits.
November 20, 27 and December 4th, 2021 11am-7pm. Join us!
A new chapter of Silent Salinity opens Saturday November 13, 2021. Join us At Enter/Return:Allusive Constructions, a pop up Gallery by Tommy Gregory and Casey Arguelles Gregory in Columbia City. Reception Saturday 4-7 at 4860 Rainier Ave S.
I’ll be celebrating Women’s History Month in March by installing my feminist artwork in the exhibit Sound the Siren at Vashon Center for the Arts. This will be the first time all of my bronze work with an underlying feminist theme will be exhibited at once. More neon too! March 4-27, Artist Reception March 4th, 2022 5-8pm
Also! at Vashon Center for the Arts: My daughter Roxy Coss and I will be doing a Talk on the Rock Thursday evening, March 10th: A Cross Generational Talk on the Creative Process In this debut public exchange, we will discuss our individual and collaborative explorations through the creative process, and examine similarities and differences of how we each transform conceptual ideas of inspiration into finished art.
The Beautiful Bellevue College Gallery re-opens in 2022 after closure due to the pandemic. My exhibit Witness will open in late September as school opens. Sept-Nov 2022
Like Mother tours to the White River Valley Museum in Auburn. This thoughtful group show explores Mother Daughter relationships through the work of artists.
Join us on Saturday July 10, 2021 at 10:00AM for the dedication of the refurbished Dickman Mill Park with the installation of the vintage head saw and my artwork Ghost Log. You can RSVP here
Traces is a story of life, lineage, & loss. Starting with my daughters, this work traces my female lineage and gives voice to the lost identities of my foremothers. Covering more than 175 linear feet, the maiden names spiral backwards. Each name lost in marriage are honored here as in a family journal. The shadows cast, like the names themselves are ethereal. Like chasing shadows, or chasing ghosts, each name is but the name of a father. Traces 2021; steel; 48”x48”x4″. Sold
I’m using the hat as a period icon to examine the female experience in the 20th century to speak to the 21st century. I’ve been interviewing Elderly women at Aljoya Thornton whose timeless stories resonate today. They are featured in Witness on exhibit at the Residence Gallery. These women have seen so much change yet in other ways so little. Thanks 4culture for an Artist Project Grant for this work and to curator Anna Macrae for coordinating.
J. Rinehart Gallery presents an exhibition of artwork in conversation. Featuring new works by Jaq Chartier, Katy Stone, Maggie Jiang, and guest artists Hernan Paganini and Mary Coss. On View in the gallery from November 7 – December 19, 2020.
Stay tuned! I’ll be taking part in the upcoming live-streamed Conversations.
“With a unique mix of materials, imagery and techniques, this exhibition combines the works of seemingly different artists in the same visual space, creating a new conversation between the works and the viewer as they interact.
Mary Coss’ bronze gloves paired with Meggan Joy’s digitally collaged floral hand gestures speaks to feminine ideals and modern strength within the rich symbolic nature of our hands. Joy’s fleeting floral collages flow into Katy Stone’s works on aluminium as her silhouettes of flora dance off the wall.”
“BIMA offers an “intense session in art vocabulary” with this group exhibition focusing on the artists’ idiosyncratic approaches to abstraction. The roster is intriguing, ranging from textile artist Jono Vaughan to ecologically focused Mary Coss to UW professor and painter Denzil Hurley.” The Stranger recommended
Groundswell examines the relationship between water, global warming and culture. I will be in residence at METHOD Gallery Monday through Friday March 1-20 as I transform the space from a stark dystopian landscape of salt laden grass into a churning, ethereal swell reflecting our current social climate.
Artifacts from the ruins What Remains have been catalogued and are now on view at 950
January 10 – February 21, 2019. Art and science meld in salt encrusted artifacts, a dystopian landscape, poetics of language and video projection in the new exhibit at 950Gallery in Tacoma.
“I use the language of metaphor to examine contemporary issues. Silent Salinity explores the relationship between water, global warming and culture. Through a two-year partnership with spatial ecologist Roger Fuller, I examined the dangerously increased salinity levels encroaching on local estuaries, and on consequently our freshwater re-sources. The work in this show is inspired by these conversations and resulted in telling the story symbolically through the medium of salt.”
Cohost: Skagit Climate Science Consortium and Museum of Northwest Art
Artists and Scientists collaborate on Artwork about Global Warming. Surge, an exhibition designed to draw attention to climate change and its impact on Northwest’s coastal communities, provides the forum for artists together with environmental researchers and educators to present the public with new perspectives on issues such as flooding, sea level rise and storm surge.
Working in partnership with Eco Scientist Roger Fuller, we’ve explored the effect of Climate Change on Salinity Levels in local estuaries, and consequently the impact on the flora and fauna.I am exhibiting three installations in this show that tell this story through the medium of salt. Roger and I will be part of an artist panel to discuss the collaborations, the science and the art.
“Wording” features the work of artists who combine fragments of written language with the potentials of visual experience. By creating a dialog of work by Seattle based artist Mary Coss, NYC based artist Soledad Arias, NYC based artist Maria Vasconcelos, Bay Area artists Maria Porges and the late Susan O’Malley, “wording” hopes to offer a touch of antidote to the cynicism, suspicion, and numbness caused by this overwhelming circumstance.
and its impact on Northwest’s coastal communities, provides the forum for artists together with environmental researchers and educators to present the public with new perspectives on issues such as flooding, sea level rise and storm surge.
