2003–present Lives and works in State College, Pennsylvania.
1992–2003 Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1990–1992 New Haven, Connecticut (studio in Branford).
1989–1990 Paris, France (studio in Vétheuil).
1983–1989 Providence, Rhode Island.
1957 Born in Columbus, Ohio.
1990–1992 Studied painting with Joan Mitchell, Vétheuil, France.
1986–1992 Ph.D. candidate in History of Art, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
Dissertation title: Pissarro and Cézanne: Theory, Practice and Ideology, 1872–1882.
Adviser: Kermit S. Champa.
1987 M.A., History of Art, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
Thesis: The Relative Scale and Sequence of Michelangelo’s Drawings for the Medici Chapel.
Adviser: Juergen Schulz.
1984 Summer Language Institute (German), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
1983 Special Student (History of Art), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
1981 Ansel Adams Summer Workshop, Yosemite National Park, California.
1979 B.A. magna cum laude, with Distinction in American Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
1998 Tabor Academy, Braitmayer Art Center, Marion, Massachusetts. February 16–March 7.
1997 University of Michigan, School of Art & Design, Ann Arbor, Michigan. “By-work,” January 2 –February 2.
1995 Alexa Lee Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan. “A Gap in Nature,” October 20 –November 25.
1994 Alexa Lee Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan. “New Paintings and Drawings,” March 7–April 12 (with Martha Keller).
1993 Centro Cultural “Villa de Boltaña,” Huesca, Spain. “Los Matoralles,” July 17–31 (with David Campbell).
2006 “Kite Project: Uttarayan,” The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland, June 30–July 29 (with Helen O’Leary & Sarah Schwartz).
2003 “Frames of Identity: Versions of the Self-Portrait,” University of Michigan Residential College, Ann Arbor, March 7–April 5, 2003.
1999 “Seeing it Through: Faculty Artists from the School of Art and Design,” University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, April 10–July 3, 1999.
1996 “Gallery Artists: Recent Painting and Sculpture,” Alexa Lee Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 21, 1996–August 1, 1996.
1995 “A Day Without Art,” Alexa Lee Gallery (Project Room), Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 1–January 6, 1996 (with Tyree Guyton, Cynthia Nartonis et al.).
“Look with Care,” Alexa Lee Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 28–September 2 (with Eric Fischl, Tyree Guyton, Laurie Halbritter, Jennifer Reeves et al.).
“Land,” Alexa Lee Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 9–July 22 (with Larry Cressman, Nancy Mitchnick, Stephen Magsig, Robert Wilbert et al.).
“Small Talk,” Alexa Lee Gallery (Project Room), Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 8–July 22 (with Laurie Halbritter, Jennifer Reeves, Sharon Que, Tyree Guyton et al.).
“Small Works,” Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, June 3–June 30 (with Power Boothe, Linda Stojak, Judith Streeter, Hiro Yokose et al.).
Locke, Nancy. “Some Possibilities for Painting’s New Topographies.” Sulfur 43, Fall 1998: 151–156, ill.
Biro, Matthew. “Christopher Campbell: Alexa Lee Gallery.” The New Art Examiner 23, no. 6 (February 1996): 51–52, ill.
Cantu, John Carlos. “A natural sort of abstract.” The Ann Arbor News, 19 November 1995: E12, ill.
“Sunday Best: Art.” The Ann Arbor News, 12 November 1995: F1, ill.
“Art that rewards a 2nd glance.” The Ann Arbor News, 13 August 1995: E1.
“There’s not enough land in ‘Land’ exhibition.” The Ann Arbor News, 25 June 1995: F6.
“Aesthetic mix provided at Alexa Lee Gallery.” The Ann Arbor News, 20 March 1994: F5, ill.
Colby, Joy Hakanson. “Earthy theme show lands a top cast of artists.” The Detroit News, 7 July 1995: 12C.
Guíu, Miguel. “Pintura figurativa y abstracta en Boltaña.” Heraldo de Huesca, Huesca, Spain, 24 July 1993, ill.
Martin, Bruce. “Hometown brings out best in Sparling’s company.” The Ann Arbor News, 23 June 1996: E1.
Olivera, Pilar Sampietro. Interview, Radio Sobrarbe (FM 92.2), Labuerda, Huesca, Spain, 20 July 1993.
1992 “Pissarro and the Palette Knife: Two Pictures from 1867.” Apollo CXXXVI, no. 369 (November 1992): 311–314.
1991 Review, Richard R. Brettell, “Pissarro and Pontoise.” The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1057 (April 1991): 264–265.
1986 “Art of the Sixties: Soliloquies and Conversations,” catalogue essay and entries on Carl Andre, Larry Bell, Anthony Caro, Mark di Suvero, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Jules Olitski, and David von Schlegell in Definitive Statements, American Art: 1964–66. Providence: Brown University, 1986.
2006 Guest lecture, “Coding Light,” Art & Architecture 101, Art & Design Theory, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, November 27.
Guest lecture, “Imaging landscape: from f/64 to the digital revolution,” Art History 450, History of Photography, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, April 6.
Guest lecture, “Painting out of the Other: Pissarro and Cézanne,” Art History 350, Landscape Painting in 19th-Century Europe, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, February 27.
2005 Guest lecture, “Redoing Cézanne after Photography,” Art & Architecture 197, Art & Design Theory, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, November 30.
Lecture, “Pissarro, Cézanne, and the Strangeness of Picture-making,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, in conjunction with the exhibition, “Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne and Pissarro 1865–1885,” July 27.
2002 Lecture, “Painting Lessons: Joan Mitchell and the New York School,” Ann Arbor Women Artists, Ann Arbor Art Center, September 23.
Lecture and studio visit to Ann Arbor studio, docent education program of the Detroit Institute of the Arts, August 22.
Lecture and gallery talk, “1st and 2nd Generations of the New York School,” Detroit Institute of the Arts, June 23.
Lecture, “Painting’s Size and Painted Scale,” program “Exploration in Scale: Size, Measure and Value,” Rackham Summer Interdisciplinary Institute, University of Michigan, May 28.
Lecture, “Thinking, Drawing, Painting,” program “Art in Context,” Detroit Institute of the Arts, February 23.
1998 Lecture, “Recent Work,” Tabor Academy, Marion, Massachusetts, February 19.
Lecture, “Cézanne and Pissarro: Reciprocal Relations,” symposium Cézanne: Art, Modernism and Culture, University of Delaware, December 4.
1998 Tomlinson Fellow in the Visual Arts, Tabor Academy, Marion, Massachusetts.
1990 Departmental Research Grant, History of Art, Brown University.
1989 Fulbright Fellowship, Advanced Student Full Grant to France.
Summer Research Grant, History of Art, Brown University.
1988 Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Fellowship, Brown University.
2005 Visiting Lecturer, School of Visual Art, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania.
1994–2003 Numerous guest lectures at the University of Michigan (Professors Laura Auerbach, Howard Lay, Marjorie Levinson, Erika Najinski, Thomas Willette), and served on juries for the School of Architecture (Professors Caroline Constant, Robert Levit, Christian Zapatka).
1998–1999 Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1987–1988 Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Visual Arts, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts.
1986–1988 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.
1985–1986 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Art and Architectural History, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.
American Express Financial Services, New York
Dance Gallery/Peter Sparling & Co.: New Bach, Ann Arbor
Deloitte & Touche, Minneapolis
Monasterio de Boltaña, Boltaña, Spain
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
2001 Abt, Jeffrey, ed. Up From the Streets: Detroit Art from the Duffy Collection Warehouse. Detroit: Wayne State University.
1998 Kleinman, Kent, and Van Duzer, Leslie, ed. Rudolf Arnheim: Revealing Vision. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
1997 Marshall, Richard, and Pleynet, Marcelin. Joan Mitchell. Valencia: IVAM.
1995 McDonnell, Patricia, and Plante, Michael. Dictated by Life: Marsden Hartley and Robert Indiana. New York: D.A.P.
1992 Kertess, Klaus. Joan Mitchell: Pastel. New York: Robert Miller Gallery.
1992 Waldberg, Michel. Joan Mitchell. Paris: Éditions de la Différance.
Various: Architectural Record, Metropolitan Home, I.D.
References available upon request