Dawn Cerny was born in Carpinteria, CA and currently lives in Seattle, WA.  Cerny’s sculptures begin with the notion that “furniture” and “mother” are figures that secure a value (to others) for their potential to hold, display, or be absent-mindedly left with things. Putting form and color to work and entrusting no small part to contingency, these works behave as something like gestural understudies for a play about the day-to-day grinding weariness and joyful slapstick absurdity of human relationship—about trying to Work It Out…or not.

Cerny has had solo institutional exhibitions at The Seattle Art Museum (2021); The Portland Art Museum (2017); and The Henry Art Gallery (2008 and 2017). Her sculptures, works on paper, and collaborative projects have been exhibited in institutions and galleries across North America including Micki Meng Gallery, San Francisco (2023); F Gallery, Huston (2022); Art Cake, Brooklyn (2022); Cooper Cole, Toronto (2018); and MOCA, Los Angeles (2018). She is the recipient of two Washington State Artist Fellowships (2004 + 2017); the Betty Bowen Award (2020); the Bonnie Bronson Visual Arts Fellowship (2022) and the Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2022).  Cerny’s works on paper and sculptures are in public collections, including The Walker Art Gallery, SFMOMA, The Frye Museum, The Henry Art Gallery, The Portland Art Museum, and The Seattle Art Museum. Dawn Cerny’s work has been written about in Bomb Magazine, KQED, Variable West, Artforum, the International Sculpture Center Blog, The Brooklyn Rail, The Stranger, and The Seattle Times.

Cerny received an MFA in Sculpture from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts Bard College in 2012 after running the printmaking and book arts studios at Cornish College of the Arts for 10 years. Cerny is an adjunct instructor at Seattle University and is currently meal planning, folding laundry or preparing for a 2025 solo exhibition at The Frye Museum entitled “Portmeirion.”