Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan
Born	1969 New York

Tara Donovan (born 1969 in New York) is an American artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for site-specific installation art that utilizes everyday materials whose form is in keeping with generative art.

Born in 1969, in Flushing, Queens Tara Donovan is a contemporary American artist focused in sculptural and organic subject matter. Donovan grew up in Blauvelt, New York. Her studies began at the School of Visual Arts, New York in 1987-88. Donovan received her BFA at the Corcoran College of Art and Design, Washington, D.C. in 1991. On her time at Corcoran College, Donovan said "I think I was learning how to think abstractly." She earned her MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1999 when she received her first interview in Articulate Contemporary Art Review. Before attending VCUarts, Donovan tended bar and waited tables for six years, and didn't quit her day job until 2003, when her first New York solo show, at the Ace Gallery (when it had a branch in New York), proved a breakout success.

Donovan has been represented by The Pace Gallery, New York since 2005 and by Stephen Friedman Gallery, London since 2007.

Although she was born in Queens, Donovan grew up in Rockland County, in a small town called Blauvelt. Growing up near New York her parents worked in the city. Her mother was an executive secretary in the stock market and her father owned an Irish pub on Wall Street. Tara was the middle child of three siblings, she has one older sister and one younger brother. Growing up there was not large artistic influence, rather just a love for making things. It wasn’t until college, at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C. that she began to consider herself a sculptor. From then on Donovan began entering regional art shows to display her works until she helped create her own gallery space in an old converted D.C. nightclub called the Insect Club. From that point, Tara went back to graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University to complete a two-year program. While going to graduate school Tara worked full-time and also created works for a solo show in Washington D.C. In the year 2000 Donovan participated in the Whitney Biennial. After that Donovan lived and worked as a waitress in New York when she finally was contacted by Doug Christmas to show a piece in the Ace Gallery in L.A. This meeting was a breakthrough show for Donovan leading to more opportunities and shows in and out of NYC.

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