Mary Dawson: Enduring Beauty
October 17 – December 20, 2025
The artist’s signature fluidity in new paintings and legacy ceramics
20 North Gallery presents a solo exhibition of paintings in oil on canvas, paired with ceramic sculpture, showcasing artist Mary Dawson’s signature flowing style. Featuring Dawson’s new series of floral paintings completed within the last three years and select wall-mounted ceramics, Enduring Beauty highlights the elegance of Dawson’s lines, across mediums.
The exhibit will open with a free, Public Reception on Friday, October 17, 2025 from 6 – 8 p.m.
See what The [Toledo] Blade had to say on November 16, “Leap of faith: Mary Dawson blossoms in 20 North solo exhibition”!
The exhibit continues through December 20, 2025.
Through oil paintings and ceramic sculpture, Mary Dawson creates stunningly fluid forms. Mimicking the delicate yet bold qualities of cultivated flora, her two- and three-dimensional pieces bring to life a subject that has captivated creatives throughout art history. The Enduring Beauty exhibition displays Dawson’s new, photorealistic floral studies interspersed with earlier black-and-white ceramic sculptures, the form of which mirrors the calming, flowing lines of her brushwork. These legacy ceramic artworks hail from her personal collection, curated from the four decades of her work as a fine artist. All artworks exhibited are available for sale—many for the first time.
Sinuous in line and form, Mary Dawson’s monochromatic ceramic sculptures and large-scale botanical paintings of intense color create unexpected echoes in the visual dialogues she evokes—each one a testament to the artist’s quest for pure, classical beauty.
Mary Dawson (Bowling Green, Ohio) received an Associate degree in Fine Art, magna cum laude, from Monticello College (Godfrey, Illinois), her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bowling Green State University (Ohio), as well as post-graduate studies in ceramics, painting and graphic design at the same. In addition to teaching graphic design at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in the 1990s and 2000s, she has also served as a gallery manager for the Patrick Gallery in San Juan (Puerto Rico).
In 1988, she founded Dawson Design, serving as both the principal and creative director until her retirement in 2023. Her work there provided a full range of concept, design and production services for clients in the corporate and public sectors, including the international Dana Corporation and ten years of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo / Toledo Area Rapid Transit Authority’s joint public art program, Art in TARTA, for which she designed and implemented their award-winning bus wrap graphics based on studio art submissions from area students.
As a studio artist for more than four decades, Mary Dawson’s clay sculpture has been displayed in the annual, juried Toledo Area Artists Exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio (2002; 2004 Second Place Award for Five Figures); the Bowling Green University School of Art Faculty Exhibit (2002; 2003), the Art Commission of Greater Toledo Exhibit (2003; 2005), as well as solo and feature shows in commercial galleries throughout the region. Dawson is a former trustee for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo and the Medici Circle, BGSU, School of Art; she is a current member of the Toledo Potters’ Guild (Ohio).
For purchase inquiries, please contact
20 North Gallery:
419-241-2400 or info@20northgallery.com
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday
Noon – 4p.m.
Or by appointment
Mary Dawson: Enduring Beauty Installation Images:
