1928-2019
Works in the Collection
Biography
Mavis Pusey was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1928 and grew up in the rural town of Retreat. She learned to sew at a very young age, and by 9 years old knew how to design and make her own clothes. She dreamed of studying fashion, and at 18 she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League, paying her way through school by sewing wedding gowns. It wasn’t long before her passion shifted from fashion to the printmaking. She studied with Harry Sternberg and Will Barnet before her education took her to London, back to New York, and finally to Mary Baldwin College in Virginia where she earned her B.A. From 1969-1972, Pusey worked in Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking workshop and, in 1971, was included in the famous exhibition “Contemporary Black Artists in America” held at the Whitney.
Pusey exhibited around the country and taught at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Drew University, and the New School for Social Research. Throughout her career, she won awards from numerous institutions including the Pollock Krasner Foundation and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Her work can be found in many public and private collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC. and in the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Here is a link to her New York Times obituary.