Member Spotlight: Gail Winbury

Winbury has a one-woman painting exhibition hung March 10th at The Gallery at 350 Bleecker in Manhattan, which will reopen for a reception, post pandemic. She is a member of the Carter Burden Gallery in Chelsea which has a virtual exhibition Consolations III. She is scheduled for a solo-exhibition in Pittburgh, Pa which will likely be rescheduled.

As the Artist in Residence at the Co-Co, I am happily a full- time artist of nearly 20 years, and a practicing psychologist for 30. I was raised in New Jersey, as a feminist in an art-loving family of scientists. While painting with my father as a child, my mother would say, “A woman has to support herself”. I took art classes in high school and college, but I majored in Psychology. Two years later I was in graduate school. During the six years becoming a psychologist there was no time for art. I worked at UMass Medical School and eventually at Rutgers University. On becoming pregnant, I started a private practice. Today, I maintain a small practice specializing in therapy and coaching.

Once out of graduate school I made art with what time was available. In 2003, I traveled to Italy and New Mexico to study painting. I studied at: the Provincetown Museum School; The Visual Art Center; and eventually The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I have had residencies, fellowships, presentations and exhibitions around the world; including Germany, Italy, Mexico Israel, and the States. In March, we installed a one- woman exhibition in Manhattan, (the opening postponed until after the pandemic).

Also, in March, I fled a large East Orange studio, to my small home studio in Westfield. As frightening and sad as Covid-19 has been, it has also given us all time. For me, time in the studio simply creating art.

I came to know the Co Co through Sarah Walko and Mary Birmingham of the Visual Art Center. They asked me to show my work in this new space for an organization which empowers women. My answer was easy- yes. How wonderful to come full circle, back in NJ exhibiting my work in a real and virtual venue, that supports and honors women.