Untitled, Cleary painted two life-size rats (green and soft pink) serving her as she reclined nude on a divan while smoking. Another theme that is very apparent in Cleary's work is sexuality. In some of her art, it is frank and bold, like her series of large oil paintings from the early 1990s that studied male genitalia. (In 1997, one of her paintings at an erotic art auction was featured on an episode of HBO's Real Sex.) Other studies of sexuality are more subtle and abstract. Cleary painted many flowers that were said to be in the vein of Georgia O'Keeffe. Cleary's open exploration of sexuality creates a distraction for the viewer. The more flagrant the sexuality, the more Cleary conceals herself in her work. Solo exhibitions 2014-Arts Club of Washington - Manon Cleary, Obsessive Observer: A New Perspective Through Her Photographic Studies 2009-Addison/Ripley Gallery, DC 2007-DC Arts Center 2006-Emerson Gallery, DC 2006-Washington Art Museum2005-Waddle Gallery, Louden Campus, Sterling, Virginia2002-Pass Gallery, DC1997-"Manon Cleary, Body in the Question," Maryland Art Place1985-"Pintura e Desenho De Manon Cleary," Centro de Arte de Arte Moderna, Gulbekian Found, Lisbon, Portugal*1977-Pyramid Galleries, Ltd., DC1974-Pyramid Galleries, Ltd., DC*1972-Arena Stage, DC 1972-Franz Bader Gallery, DC1968-Tyler Gallery, Philadelphia References External links Profile at askart.com 1942 births 2011 deaths American erotic artists 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters American realist painters Painters from Missouri Artists from St. Louis Temple University alumni University of the District of Columbia faculty Washington University in St. Louis alumni American twins Painters from Washington, D.C. Identical twins American women painters 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists Artists from Washington, D.C.