Squeak Carnwath

Common in Ten Languages by Squeak Carnwath

"I love color because I think everybody responds differently to every color. I think it's really subjective. . . I'm very interested in letting my unconscious and intuitive nature figure out what colors to use. I use colors that I respond to– they're very lush, and people want to touch them. . . I want people to want to touch them, because it brings them closer in some way– that means they're having an emotional response, even though they might not be able to articulate what it is."

Squeak Carnwath

Squeak Carnwath draws upon the philosophical and mundane experiences of daily life in her paintings and prints, which can be identified by lush fields of color combined with text, patterns, and identifiable images. She has received numerous awards including the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award for Visual Arts from the Flintridge Foundation, the Award for Individual Artists from the Flintridge Foundation, and the Lee Krasner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. In 2019, she was inducted into the National Academy of Design and Art. Carnwath is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a founding member of the Artists’ Legacy Foundation, and served as president from 2000 to 2026. She lives and works in Oakland, CA.

Squeak Carnwath CV