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Born in 1949, Barbara Takenaga was raised in North Platte, Nebraska, where her father was a doctor. In 1972, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree followed by a Master of Fine Arts in 1978, both from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Takenaga resides in New York City and Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she is a Professor of Art at Williams College.
Solo exhibitions have been shown at the Brattleboro Museum of Art, Vermont; Museum of Outdoor Arts, Englewood, Colorado; CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder; The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, Texas; McKenzie Fine Art, New York; Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, California; James Graham & Sons, New York; Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and the College of Wooster Art Museum, Ohio. Selected group shows include Big Bang! Abstract Painting for the 21st Century, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Invitational Painting of Arts and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; 179th Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, The National Academy of Design, New York; Accumulations; Islip Art Museum, East Islip, New York; New Prints 2003/Winter, International Print Center, New York; and Elbows and Tea Leaves, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado.
Takenaga’s work is included in numerous public collections including Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; CU Art Museum, University of Colorado, Boulder; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; The Hallmark Fine Arts Program, Kansas City, Missouri; Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, California; and Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney.
On April 8, 2020 Barbara Takenaga was chosen for the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship amongst 175 visual artists, scholars and writers. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, candidates were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from almost 3,000 applicants in the Foundation’s ninety-sixth competition.
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