"Squeak Carnwath is an archivist of the overheard, the snippet, and the little-known fact, and her works combine images and text. A studio artist, she defines painting as a rectilinear plane, a body and skin that is open and vulnerable to every variety of event, every sort of thinking and experience, as long as she can render it in her chosen medium. This belief in paint is key to her work. "- John Yau ("Do We Still Recognize Ourselves?", Hyperallergic, May 2022).
Squeak Carnwath is a celebrated painter and printmaker who uses text, color field painting, and a wide variety of recognizable symbols to make interesting, engaging, and relatable works. Her works have the intimate feel of a diary, but acknowledge universal themes that are familiar to every viewer. Her paintings work together to form a kind of visual conversation within the spaces that they are displayed. Carnwath utilizes traditional painting techniques such as trompe l’oeil and symbolism, while also making statements that question the viewer’s thoughts and emotions. Carnwath wants the viewer to make connections between words, objects and shapes; connections that often evoke moments of humor and sadness.
She has received numerous awards including the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Award from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Award for Individual Artists from the Flintridge Foundation. Carnwath was also awarded the Lee Krasner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in its 2018-19 grant cycle. She was inducted into the National Academy of Design along with 15 others in the class of 2019. Carnwath is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Berkeley. Carnwath lives and works in Oakland, California.