Artist Statement
I am currently exploring the science of color and vision with the aid of a groundbreaking new tool developed by the SciHub team at Arizona State University*. This technology offers fresh insight into how we perceive the world, and it is inspiring a new body of work.
This series of oil paintings is designed specifically for the capabilities of this device, which reveals the rich diversity of visual experience—how humans with colorblindness see, as well as how other species with more or less visual capacity than our own perceive their environments. Vision, after all, does not exist in isolation; it evolves within the greater context of nature.
The collection will include 20-inch round paintings inspired by Ishihara Plates—tools traditionally used to diagnose colorblindness—as well as large, brilliantly colored, multi-layered landscapes. When viewed through this new technology, the works will illuminate a spectrum of simultaneous ways of seeing.
Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek’s 4/14/25 article in the South China Morining Post.
*Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek; Emeritus Professor of Solid-State Sciences Nathan Newman; Dr. Dan Marshall; Dr. Ralph Chamberlain; Austin Borchart; Abbi Gobel; Murillo Vicari Hadad; Krish Bharat Majethia; Durgaprasad Shankaranand Naik; Thien Phu Njuyen; Isabella Palmieri; and Connor Quelette.
Bio
Penny Cagney was born, raised, and educated in the greater Chicago area. She holds a BFA, magna cum laude, from Loyola University Chicago; a MA in Arts Management from Columbia College Chicago; and a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2021).
Cagney has exhibited her work at galleries and museums including California State University, Fresno; the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, CA; the Los Angeles Artist Association; the Monterey Museum of Art; and the International Museum of Surgical Sciences in Chicago.
While making art has always been her deepest passion, Cagney also worked in nonprofit leadership and fundraising, supporting a wide range of organizations in the visual and performing arts. These include the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, the National Cultural Center of Egypt, the ASU Art Museum, Scottsdale Arts Center, the Musical Instrument Museum, and the Music Academy of the West.
In addition, she authored and edited five books on management, has taught at the graduate level—at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo—and has presented internationally on leadership and philanthropy.
Today, she devotes herself full-time to her studio practice, dividing her time between Santa Cruz, California and Tempe, Arizona.
Education
2021 M.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago
1988 M.A., Arts Entertainment & Media Management, Columbia College, Chicago
1978 B.F.A., magna cum laude, Loyola University, Chicago
Academic Experience
2012-14 Adjunct Professor, Arizona State University Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation
1999 Distinguished Visiting Professor, Arts Management, American University, Cairo, Egypt
1993-97 Adjunct Professor, Graduate Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Program, Columbia College, Chicago
1995-96 Adjunct Professor, Graduate Arts Administration Program, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Residencies
2023 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA
Publications
2025 Los Angeles Art Association 100th Anniversary book, Volume 7 catalog
2024 Art in the Time of Corona, Dabster Arts, Inc., Vol. 3,
2023 Perfect Imperfection: Faces and Figures, Women United Art Magazine, Vol. 2, Winter
2022 Curators Pick, Women United Art Magazine, Vol. I, October
2021 Studio Visit Magazine, Vol. 47 p 28, April
Select Board Memberships
2010-11, 2013-14 Arizona Costume Institute, Phoenix Art Museum
1990-91 Chicago Academy for the Arts, Creative Council
1987-88 The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago
1986-87 New Group, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago