Mary Frank (1933-) is a sculptor, ceramicist, and painter in New York, New York. She was born in London, England in 1933 to writer, Edward Lockspeiser, and artist, Eleanore Weinstein. In 1940, she and her mother moved to Brooklyn, New York and moved in with her mother's parents, Gregory and Eugenie Weinstein. Eventually Frank and her mother moved to the Village in Manhattan. Frank studied modern dance with Martha Graham and attended the High School of Music and Art, the Professional Children's School, and studied under artists Hans Hofmann and Max Beckmann. While still in high school, she met photographer, Robert Frank, whom she eventually married in 1950. They had two children, Pablo and Andrea, and divorced in 1969. Frank first exhibited her artwork at Poindexter Gallery in 1958 and traveled with Red Grooms across Italy in the 1960s, which had a significant impact on her artistic development. Her work is also influenced by her daughter's untimely death in 1974 and her son's illness that began in 1975 and ended in his death in 1994.
Mostly self-taught, Frank works across multiple disciplines including sculpture, painting, ceramics, and drawing. Reflected in her work are themes of grief, loss, love and sorrow. He career has spanned over five decades where she has exhibited works at numerous galleries and museums around the country. She has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including two Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, and taught classes at Bard College. Mary Frank's works are included in the permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, National Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and many others. She has also been a longtime advocate of solar cooking.