Elizabeth Miller McCue

“I believe I chose sculpture as a medium of expression because I grew up learning about the world by picking up objects, holding them, breaking them, seeing what they were like on the inside and outside.”
-Elizabeth Miller McCue

Elizabeth Miller McCue received her B.A. from Vassar College, continued her studies at the University of London, the Art Students League of New York, and the New York Studio School. While attending art school, McCue was awarded seven grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and six from the New York State Council on the Arts to produce films documenting the work of America’s most prominent choreographers: George Balanchine, Martha Graham, and Paul Taylor for the dance collection archives at Lincoln Center.

In 2000, McCue designed a sculpture installation specifically for the Michener Art Museum, Haystacks in the Field. It was inspired by Claude Monet’s famous haystack series.

McCue’s pieces consisted of three inverted steel frames, covered with steel wool to invoke the shapes of the haystacks. Her bronze sculpture Ball of Leaves was part of the art collection of Salomon Inc. in New York. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers.

McCue has participated in many solo exhibitions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She has been featured in numerous curated and juried international, national, and regional exhibitions. McCue was commissioned for the Dangerous Women Two exhibit at The Gallery, Mercer County Community College, Trenton, NJ, to celebrate the portrait legacy of Sculptor Dr. Selma Burke. For the commission, she created Face to Face, No. 2 in 2007.

When describing her view of sculpture, she writes, “Sculpture is complete focus in isolation. As for the making of sculpture, what child did not love making things? I remember assembling models of ships and planes, gluing all the pieces together, and then painting them… I guess I was always a builder, bringing parts together to make a whole.”

Since 2011, her work is being represented by the Sculptors Guild Gallery in Brooklyn, New York.

Education
B.A., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1969-1973
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, England, Post-graduate studies of South East Asian Archaeology, 1973-1974
Art Students League, New York, NY, 1976-1980
New York Studio School, New York, NY, 1977-1980

Influences
Michelangelo, Rembrandt van Rijn, Piero della Francesca, El Greco, Paul Cezanne, Alberto Giacometti

Teachers and Mentors
Sidney Simon, Sidney Geist, Clement Meadmore, William Tucker, Isaac Witkin, Nicolas Carone, Gregory D'Alessio, Gabriel Laderman, Robert Beverly Hale

Affiliations and Memberships
Founding Member, Arts & Cultural Council of Bucks County
National Association of Women Artists (N.A.W.A.)
Pennsylvania State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
International Sculpture Center
Philadelphia Sculptors and Washington Sculptors Group

Connections to Bucks County
McCue has lived and maintained a studio in Yardley since 1989. She has exhibited at the Michener Art Museum and at New Hope Art. McCue is a member of the Arts and Cultural Council of Bucks County and won the Selma Burke Sculpture Award at the 18th Annual Bucks County Sculpture Show. Additionally, McCue and her family live in a house once occupied by Bucks County painter Jonathan Trego.

Artistic Community and Colleagues
Wendy Wilkinson Gordon and Harry Gordon, Dana Stewart, Ray Mathis, Mark Pettegrow, David R. Crane, Larice Burtt, Jack Thompson, Jon Lash, Dona Warner, James Gafgen, Bruce Lindsay, and the late Selma H. Burke

Major Solo Exhibitions
SOAP (Summit Original Art Projects), Summit, NJ
The Art Alliance
Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA
The Gallery, State Theatre Center for the Arts, Easton, PA
Ellarslie Mansion, the Trenton City Museum, Trenton, NJ

Major Group Exhibitions
Carolee Schneeman: Retrospective, a video documentary of the Judson Street Dance Theatre, Max Hutchinson, New York, NY
Sculpture in the Environment, the Sculpture Center of Kouros Gallery New York, NY, 1996-2004
Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely, MD
Menage a Tree, Sidetracks Gallery, New Hope, PA
7th Annual Dieu Donne Papermill Benefit Exhibition and Auction, New York, NY

Collections
The William and Uytendale Scott Memorial Study Collection of Works by Women Artists, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
Archives on Women Artists, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
The Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA
Project H.O.M.E., Philadelphia, PA
Salomon Inc., New York, NY, and London, England
Scannapieco Development, New Hope, PA
Cherokee Sculpture Garden, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA

Awards
First Prize and First Awardee, Selma Burke Sculpture Award, Juried by Dr. Selma Burke, Lisa Trenper Barnes, Zoltan Buki, 18th Annual Bucks County Sculpture Show, 1995

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Board Member, Trenton Artists' Workshop Association, 2003-2008