Squeak Carnwath is Professor in Residence in the Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley. She is widely known for her large, luminous canvasses. “Carnwath builds her paintings up layer by layer, blending poetry and imagery with color and luminosity to emphasize the essence of her message: We should all take the time to appreciate and revel in the familiar circumstances of our daily lives,” art critic Miriam Seidel has said. As Carnwath herself puts it, “Art is the antidote that reminds us to breathe, to feel the soles of our feet and the touch of the ground on the bottom of our toes.”

Carnwath’s oeuvre also includes works on paper, tapestries, and sculptures in clay or glass. Her works are held in museums and private collections internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, SFMOMA, and the Berkeley Art Museum. Her work has been the subject of articles in ARTnews, Artforum, and The New York Times. She has received numerous grants and awards, including SFMOMA’s SECA award, two NEA Fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Carnwath received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA, where she has lived and worked since 1970.