Maren Hassinger

Maren Hassinger (born 1947) is an African-American artist. She is known for her sculpture and public art using natural and industrial materials. She works in "sculpture, installation, performance, and video."

Hassinger was born in Los Angeles, California. She attended Bennington College, intending to study dance (which she had practiced since the age of five) but graduated in 1969 with a B.F.A. in sculpture. She then enrolled at UCLA to study fiber and earned her M.F.A. in 1973.

She spent five years as an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University. Since 1997, she has been Director of the Reinhart School of Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

• Twelve Trees #2, Mulholland Drive off-ramp, San Diego Freeway, northbound, Los Angeles, CA, 1979
• Pink Trash, Lynwood, CA, 1982
• Necklace of Trees, Atlanta Festival for the Arts, Atlanta, GA, 1985-85
• Bushes at Socrates Sculpture Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, Astoria, Queens, NY, 1988
• Plaza Planters and Tree Grates, Commissions for Downtown Seattle Transit Project, Seattle, WA, 1986–90
• Tall Grasses, Roosevelt Island, New York, NY, 1989-90
• Circle of Bushes, for C. W. Post, Long Island University, Brookville, NY, 1991
• Cloud Room, Commission for the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, Pittsburgh, PA, 1992
• Evening Shadows, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA, 1993
• Daily Mask, 2004

A subway station in New York city, the Central Park North – 110th Street (IRT Lenox Avenue Line) station, installed a work by Hassinger during a 1998 renovation, called Message from Malcolm. It consists of mosaic panels on the platform and main fare control area's street stairs that depict quotes and writings by Malcolm X written in script and surrounded by mosaic borders.

Hassinger has work in the permanent collections of Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, Baltimore, MD; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Williams College Art Museum, Williamstown, MA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA

• 2009 - Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, Maryland Institute College of Art

• Women's Caucus for Art Honors MICA Graduate Faculty Maren Hassinger, Joyce Kozloff for Lifetime Achievement. Maryland Institute College of Art. February 24, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2014.