Sleeping Sperm Whales

Denise Mumm was born in Munich, Germany and raised and educated in Iowa. She moved to NYC after college, remaining there until recently when she moved to Atlantic Highlands, NJ.

Her mixed media paintings are inspired by scenes from her travels on land and by boat, by the persistent beauty in the details of where the human world meets the natural world. The settings of her paintings may be ostensibly mundane and unremarkable, but the beauty is revealed in the geometry of a boatyard, lush tangles of plants against manmade structures, and dramatic late-day light.

Early on Mumm was a sculptor and even now approaches the creation of her mixed media paintings more as building them, rather than painting, putting down layer upon layer. They are acrylic paintings on wood panel with patterned or textured papers layered throughout with acrylic medium. She has employed this technique for about 20 years, learning it when she was a studio assistant for Miriam Schapiro.

Mumm has been making art and exhibiting continually in the US since college, primarily in the NYC area.