Mary Jane Parker is fascinated by the many intrinsic similarities between the natural world and the human body. The root system of a plant, for example, serves a purpose similar to that of the human intestine, and a satellite picture showing the amazing complexity and mystery of distant galaxies resembles a miscroscopic image of our blood cells. Parkers’ work explores these natural affinities, drawing attention to the unity that exists between our humanity and the world we inhabit. Informed by references from history, medicine and botany, Parker explores her fascination with rituals and ways that we order nature - "from the innocent clover chain to stones that hold a message for the dead", Parker merges the distant and foreign with the intimate and familiar.

Mary Jane Parker lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she is part of the visual art faculty of the prestigeous NOCCA/Riverfront school. She has been actively exhibiting her work since the late 1980’s, though this will be her first solo exhibition in the Northeast. Parker has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors for her work, the most recent being a 2007 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her work is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans.