HACKETT, MARY ADDISON

Mary Addison Hackett (b.1961) is an artist with an observational practice who documents her day-to-day life as a catalyst for ongoing critical investigation. Her visual language is informed by research and prompted by curiosity and fleeting moments in the everyday world. Her videos often address issues of self-representation, combining performance with wry humor, philosophical inquiry, and feminist overtones. Since the early 90s, Hackett has worked towards folding her art and life into one another. She works across painting, photography, video, and writing.

Hackett has exhibited and screened her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Her work has been critically reviewed by Christopher Knight in the Los Angeles Times and featured in Float Magazine, Burnaway, New American Paintings, n+1 magazine, Two Coats of Paint, Hyperallergic, and The Nashville Scene, among numerous others. She has been invited to lecture about her practice at Vanderbilt University, Watkins College of Art at Belmont University, and the Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA) in Los Angeles. Her work is held in the permanent collection of the Getty Research Institute (GRI), the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art, and the Riverside Art Museum, among others. Honors include project grants from the Desert X Artist Relief Fund, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and residencies in the United States and abroad. She was a nominee for the 2022 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship Grant.

Hackett earned her MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her BFA in Painting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, she spent several years documenting her rural life in Joshua Tree, California before returning to the American South in 2021. She is currently based in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.