A recent recipient (2011) of the Governor’s Arts Award for the Excellence in the Arts Category, Mary Warner is a visual artist, educator and curator. Born and raised in Northern California, she has lived in Chicago and New York City as well as teaching at the University of Montana, Oklahoma State University and University of Texas San Antonio before finally settling in Las Vegas in 1989. She retired from her position as head of painting in the Art Department at  U.N.L.V. in 2011 and is now Professor Emeritus. Over the years she has received an N.E.A. Individual Fellowship, a Mid America Arts Alliance Fellowship and two Nevada Arts Council Individual Fellowships, as well as numerous smaller grants and awards. She is the recipient of the 2011 Governors Art Award for Excellence in the Arts. She has shown her work nationally and internationally. Mary Warner’s work has been featured in forty-three solo exhibitions nationally and she has participated in fifty-five exhibitions across the state. Her work has been exhibited widely outside the state including the Whitney Museum, The Drawing Center and the Louis K Meisel gallery in New York. In California she has shown with Sherry Frumkin Gallery (Santa Monica) Wenger, Zara and Limn Gallery San Francisco and JAYJAY Gallery Sacramento, Sandy Carson Gallery, Denver as well as being included in a number of group exhibitions in Italy and the UK.

As an artist and curator, Mary Warner has been critical to the development of the local arts community. She was one of the founding members of CAC. She alternated between president and vice president in its formative years. She served for many years on the exhibition committee.