CV/Bio
I have been a painter for over forty years. I studied art and art history at Colby College, Tyler School of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I have studied with numerous painters, including Ian de Souza, Andrew Peters, and Bela Petheo. I live and work in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where my husband, a philosophy professor, and I raised our two daughters.
I grew up in the country playing outdoors in the woods, building forts out of brush, catching salamanders and fireflies and generally roaming freely around the farmland of Cornwall, Pennsylvania. I started painting as a teenager and have always loved capturing the landscape with a freedom of mark and color that echoes my childhood autonomy and my enjoyment of the outdoors. I also love painting and drawing the human figure especially from life. I consider myself primarily a life painter, but increasingly I paint from my imagination. I am not wedded to one way of painting or one medium. Experimentation keeps me inspired.
Prizes and Honors
Historic Grand Marais Award, Grand Marais Plein Air, MN, 2019
Best of Historic Plymouth, "Paint the Towns Plein Air," Plymouth, WI, 2018
Historic Dubuque Prize, Bluff Strokes Plein Air, 2016
Honorable Mention, Aitkin, MN Plein Air, 2016
Best of Show, "Essential Art," Visual Arts MN, Jan. 2009
Third Place, "Art A La Carte," Visual Arts MN, June 2008 and June 2007
Second Place, "Essential Art, Visual Arts MN, Jan. 2007
Juror, US Bank Community Art Show, St. Cloud, 2002-2008
Member of the St. Cloud Arts Commission, 2004-2006
First Place, "Ah Wilderness," Paramount Arts District, St. Cloud, MN, 2002
Honorable Mention, Artists of Minnesota, April 2001
Grants Awarded
Artist's Initiative Grant, Central Minnesota Arts Board, 2013
Individual Artist's Grant, Central Minnesota Arts Board, 2012
Artist's Initiative Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, 2007
Invdividual Artist's Grant, Central Minnesota Arts Board, 2004
Honorable Mention, Individual Artist's Grant, Central Minnesota Arts Board, 2003
Artist's Opportunity Grant, Minnesota State Arts Board, 2002
Selected Solo and Duo Exhibitions
"Food, Flowers, Figures," Paramount Center for the Arts, St. Cloud, MN, February 2018
"Pentimento: The Past Lies Waiting," Gallery Saint Germain, St. Cloud, MN, July-August 2015
"Shared Ground," Paintings by Mickey Cunningham and Dede Leither, Target Gallery, St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, Fall 2013
"Saturation: Paintings by Mickey Cunningham," Great River Arts Association, Little Falls, MN, Oct.-Nov. 2010
Paramount Gallery, St. Cloud, MN, Featured Art Crawl Artist, June 2008
"Minnesota Landscapes by Mickey Cunningham," Spirit of Life Gallery, St. Cloud, MN, June 2007
"Finding Form: Figure and Landscape Paintings by Mickey Cunningham," College of Saint Benedict, Saint Joseph, MN, Oct.-Nov. 2003
"Paintings by Mickey Cunningham and Sculpture by Guest Artist Claudia Kraehling," Paramount Arts District, St. Cloud, MN, Oct. - Nov. 2002
Selected Juried and Group Exhibitions
"Plein Air Grand Marais" Grand Marais, MN, September, 2019, Historic Grand Marais Award
"Paint the Towns," Plein Air Exhibition, Plymouth, WI, Sept, 2018, Best of Historic Plymouth Award
Paramount Juried Exhibition, Gallery St Germain, St. Cloud, MN Oct.- Nov. 2016
“Bluff Strokes,” Plein Air Exhibition, Dubuque, IA, Oct. 2016, Historic Dubuque Award.
“Aitkin – Plein Air,” Jaques Art Center, Aitkin MN, July, 2016, Honorable Mention.
Plein Air Festival Exhibition, Eureka Springs School of the Arts, AK, Spring 2016
"Arts in Harmony 2011," Elk River Area Arts Alliance, Elk River, MN, Jan.-Mar. 2011
"2006 Arrowhead Biennial," Duluth Art Institute, Duluth, MN, Nov. 2006- Mar. 2007
"Art Perchance," Minneapolis Institue of Art, Sept, 2005, 2006, 2007
"14th Annual Juried Exhibition, MacRostie Art Center, Grand Rapids, MN, Aug. 2006
"The Art of the Doll," Pump House Regional Arts Center, La Crosse, WI, July-Aug. 2006
"Painting Aitkin en Plein Air," Jacques Art Center, Aitkin, MN, July 2006
"Culture and Agriculture, New Visions Gallery, Marsfield, WI, May- July, 2006
"Mighty Midwest Biennial," New Visions Gallery, Marshfield, WI, Dec. 2005 Jan. 2006
"Art a la Carte," Paramount Arts District, St. Cloud, MN, Spring, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009
"Essential Art," Paramount Arts District, St. Cloud, MN, Winter, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
"The Figure Show," Minnetonka Center for the Arts, Wayzata, MN, Winter, 2003