Stephanie L Franks
ARTIST
Stephanie L. Franks is an accomplished painter known for her extensive exhibition history, which includes five solo shows at the Bowery Gallery in New York and features at institutions like the Royal Academy (London) and the National Academy of Design. She is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant and has taught at institutions including Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design.
She has held five solo exhibitions at the Bowery Gallery in New York and has shown her work at institutions including the National Academy of Design (NYC), the Royal Academy (London), the Higashi Hiroshima Museum, Berry Campbell Gallery (NYC), Paul Thiebaud Gallery (San Francisco), and Jason McCoy Gallery (online), among other American and international venues.
Her work has been included in exhibitions curated by notable figures such as Sean Scully, Karen Wilkin, and Irving Sandler. In 2025, several of her pieces are being featured in a traveling exhibition in Japan, Art From Peace, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. The final venue of this exhibition will be the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum in November 2025.
Franks is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant and a three-time Mercedes Matter Award honoree. She was awarded the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art Scholarship and has held residencies at Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), and in 2025, at the Todi Arts Studio Residency Program in Todi, Italy.
Her work has been featured in Forbes.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Two Coats of Paint, and other publications. She has served as a panelist, guest lecturer, and curator at institutions including the Art Students League of New York, Western Connecticut State University, and the Bowery Gallery.
Franks has taught at Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, the Chautauqua School of Art, SUNY Purchase, and the Kansas City Art Institute. She graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Barnard College, earned her M.F.A. from CUNY Queens College, and also studied at the California Institute of the Arts, the New York Studio School, and Yale Norfolk.
Creating art continues to be a deep source of joy for Franks—she believes any day spent in the studio is a great day.