Mary Clare Rietz

Mary Clare Rietz grew up in Akron, Ohio, to the smell of burning rubber. At age 21, she knew she wanted to be a community organizer. At 29, she started making art for the first time. Now, her background in organizing combines with her art practice to fuel a keen interest in what she terms aesthetic action.
Mary Clare engages with people and material to create objects, performances, and other participatory processes, often in response to dis-connects that exist and carry a power differential. With an aesthetic of relationship at its center, the work goes further, pointing to action that participants might choose in response to changes in thought or feeling that relational experiences might bring. At age 51, Mary Clare completed her MFA at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (2016).
A lifelong Ohioan, Mary Clare has lived in Cincinnati for thirteen years, with her husband Mike and their daughter Francesca.
Mary Clare Rietz’s work can be viewed online at
www.maryclarerietz.com