Mira Cantor was born in New York City and graduated with an MFA from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Her career was established in painting, drawing and mixed media sculpture while teaching at the University of Hawaii in 1970. She became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT from 1978-80, where she taught drawing in the Dept. of Architecture. In 1994-95, she was awarded a Fulbright to Alexandria, Egypt where she taught and exhibited her work at the American Center. She has spent several residencies in Banff, Canada, and Ballyvaughan, Ireland where her interest in nature, history and contemporary culture continue to seep into her work. Mira Cantor has been with the Kingston Gallery, Boston since 2013.
Cantor’s solo shows include the Tokyo American Center in Japan, the BWA Gallery in Krakow, Poland, Hampshire College, De Cordova Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, The Contemporary Arts Center, Honolulu, Gallery Lohrl in Dusseldorf to name a few. Cantor is included in the collections of the Danforth Museum, Rose Art Museum at Brandeis(drawing),the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (drawing), the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Contemporary Arts Center of Honolulu. Her drawings have been exhibited at the Vienna Biennale, Norwegian Internationale Print Biennale as well as biennales in Yugoslavia, Krakow and Venice. There is a permanent exhibition of her police drawings at the Police Headquarters in Boston. Until 2004, Cantor was represented by the Genovese Sullivan Gallery in Boston. Her drawings have been in group exhibitions ”Passion” curated by William Stover in 2003, “The Boston Drawing Show” curated by Carl Belz in 1998 and in 1993 curated by Cliff Ackley. She has worked at Northeastern for the last 40 years and is Professor of Art.