Featured Work
Exhibition
About
Stephen Tanis is a painter and Professor Emeritus at the University of Delaware where he taught both painting and drawing in the Department of Art for nearly thirty years. He received a BFA from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA in painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Tanis has been the recipient of three individual artist fellowships from the Delaware State Arts Council: the first for painting, the second for works-on-paper, and the third, a Masters fellowship in 2002 for painting. In that same year, Tanis received a Delaware Governor’s Award in the Arts. He has also received individual fellowships from the Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation and the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Foundation. Tanis has had over twenty five solo exhibitions of his work in galleries and museums including eight shows at the Sherry French Gallery in New York City and six shows at the Jane Haslem Gallery in Washington, DC.
In 2009, Stephen Tanis was honored with a retrospective show at the University of Delaware Museum that spanned forty-one years of his painting. His work is included in numerous public and private collections throughout the United States, the UK and Europe.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2009 University of Delaware Museums, University Gallery, Newark, DE
2008 Jane Haslem Gallery, Washington, DC
2006 Sherry French Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Master’s Award Fellowship Exhibition, Delaware State Arts Council Gallery, Delaware Division of the Arts, Wilmington, DE
1999 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
1997 Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
1992 Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY
1990 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
1985 Delaware State Arts Council, Wilmington, DE
1984 Shepherds College, Shepherdstown, WV
1981 College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
1977 Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
1973 University of Delaware, John M. Clayton Hall, Newark, DE
1972 Rhode Island School of Design, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018 The Figure: The Indicative and the Allusive, the Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
2014 Dream Streets: Art in Delaware from 1970-1990, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
2011 Narcissus in the Studio – Artist Self-Portraits, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2002 Allegorical Expressions in Contemporary Painting, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE
2000 175th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY
2000 Biennial 2000, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
1998 The New Baroque – Contemporary Dramatic Realism, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA
1997 Re-Presenting Representation, The Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY
1997 Concepts in Drawing, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
1991 Against the Grain: Images in American Art 1960 – 1990, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA
1991 Art LA ’90, The 5th International Contemporary Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
1991 Art Chicago, International Fine Art Exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
1987 New Still Life and Landscape Painting, Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
1987 Mainstream America – The Desind Collection, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; also traveled to: The National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
1987 Selected Contemporary Works from the Cigna Art Museum and Collection, The Lancaster Gallery of Art, Lancaster Pa
1987 Art Chicago, International Fine Art Exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
1984 67th Annual Delaware Exhibition, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE (Award)
1983 Painted Light, Artist’s Choice Museum, NYC; also traveled to: Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA; Colby College Art Museum, Waterville, ME; The Queens Museum, Flushing, NY; and The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1982 Art Chicago, International Fine Art Exposition, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
1981 2nd Invitational Drawing Show, Millersville State College, Millersville, PA
1977 4th National Pastel Exhibition, National Arts Club, New York, NY (Award)
1977 Annual Exhibition, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE (Award)
1976 Maryland Biennial, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (Award)
1976 Works on Paper, Sharadin Gallery, Kutztown State College, Kutztown, PA (Award)
1975 2nd National Pastel Exhibit, National Arts Club, New York, NY
1975 Annual Exhibition, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
1974 Tyler Painting Invitational, Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA
1974 19th Regional Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Awards and Grants
2002 Governor’s Award, Eighth Annual Delaware Governor’s Awards in the Arts
2002 Individual Artist Fellowship, Master’s Category in the Visual Arts, Delaware State Arts Council
1995 Fellowship to the Center for Advanced Study, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
1989 Individual Artist Grant for Painting, Delaware State Arts Council
1987 Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation Fellowship, Washington, DC
1984 Individual Artist Grant for Painting, Delaware State Arts Council
1977 John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Foundation Fellowship Grant, Quemado, NM
Selected Public Collections
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE
ICI Americas, Inc., Wilmington, DE
Owens-Illinois Corp., Toledo, OH
Collection of the City of Grand Rapids, MI
Cigna Corporation Museum Collection, Philadelphia, PA
Kutztown State College, Kutztown, PA
Millersville State College, Millersville, PA
Sonnenschein, Carlin, Nath & Rosenthal, Chicago, IL
Pepsi Cola Bottling Co., Wilmington, DE
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Kemper Insurance Co., Washington, DC
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Nowlin Savings and Mortgage Co., Fort Worth, TX
Nynex Corp., New York, NY
Tate and Lyle, PLC, London, England
Fabrique Ebel S.A., Basel, Switzerland
Museum Editions, New York, NY
Andrews & Kurth, Washington, DC
John-Kelly Bray, Inc., Arcadia, CA
Education
MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
BFA, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
