Artist Spotlight: Mary Frances Judge — A Life Illuminated by Color and Spirit

Artist, Mary Frances Judge

At the Museum of Friends, we are proud to house Spiritual Light by Mary Frances Judge as part of our Permanent Collection, a luminous body of work that continues to move and inspire visitors from all walks of life.

An Ursuline nun and visionary artist, Mary Frances Judge began her artistic journey in the early 1980s. Her unique perspective and spiritual depth quickly caught national attention when The New York Times featured her in the 1983 article New Gallery Opens with Nun’s Work. The piece described her paintings as “a collection of mystical paintings in lyrical bursts of color showing the emergence of the soul of women from the unconscious realm of the collective human psyche.” That spirit still resonates through every piece she creates.

Since that early acclaim, Judge’s work has been exhibited widely across the country. In 2024, the Museum of Friends proudly presented her solo exhibition Spiritual Light, offering audiences an immersive experience in her visual language of sacred symbolism and transcendence. These works are still on view at MoF as part of our commitment to preserving meaningful, spiritually charged art.

Steven Montgomery, longtime friend of Mary Frances Judge, donated paintings featured in the exhibition Spiritual Light

Judge continues to contribute to the contemporary art world with bold vision and introspection. Her current exhibition, The Subway Series – Art Express, now on view at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, reflects a different, but deeply personal exploration. This series depicts the influential figures who shaped her creative journey, including artists, mentors, and art dealers of the Soho and East Village scenes. In her paintings, these icons: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Willem de Kooning, Mary Boone, Leo Castelli, and others ride the subway express, submerged in painterly layers that symbolize her own ambition, artistic longing, and the complex dance between visibility and vocation.

Jane St. Lifer from Jane St. Lifer Art and Artist, Mary Frances Judge

While Spiritual Light evokes transcendence through mystical color and quiet illumination, The Subway Series offers a close look at ambition, legacy, and the creative path. Together, these two bodies of work reveal Judge’s enduring dedication to art as a vehicle for transformation of the self, the soul, and the collective imagination. Looking ahead, a major museum in Dallas will host a retrospective of her work in 2026, accompanied by a full-color catalog documenting the evolution of her artistic life.

To learn more about Mary Frances Judge’s exhibitions, media coverage, and current projects, visit her website.

Whether you’re discovering her work for the first time or returning to sit with it again, we invite you to visit the Museum of Friends and experience Spiritual Light, a lasting testament to inner transformation, feminine presence, and radiant vision.