biography
Jodie Lucey Ahern was born in Haverhill, MA, and trained in studio art at Connecticut College, New London, CT, where she earned her BA degree, cum laude, in 1973, with emphases on painting and printmaking. She has also taken courses at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Highpoint Center for Printmaking, the University of Minnesota, and Massachusetts College of Art. She exhibits her paintings and original prints regionally and nationally, most recently in “Floral Art Exhibition” at Pintura Gallery, Minneapolis (2018); and Art-A-Whirl (2018). Previously she showed in "WARM Guerrillas: Feminist Visions," Minneapolis (2016); solo show at UBS Financial Plaza in St. Paul (2015); the 2015 Minnesota State Fair; the inaugural exhibition at The Show Gallery in St. Paul (2015); "Love Letters from Artists" at the Groveland Gallery, Minnepolis (2015); "Small Works" at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in Fridley, MN (2014); "Celebrating Women" at the College of St. Benedict in Collegeville, MN (2014), and "Fearless Creative Energy" at the Whittier Gallery, Minneapolis (2013).
She is a current member of the Women’s Art Resources of Minnesota and retired senior editor at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a post she held for fifteen years. She has held editorial leadership roles for many publications in Massachusetts and Minnesota, including Arts magazine and Minnesota Monthly, and has contributed to national and regional publications. She has edited art books and catalogues for the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, Arts Midwest, Books & Projects, The University of Minnesota Press, and the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
Ahern works collaboratively with her husband, St. Paul author Larry Millett, on his recent books about architectural history and his mystery novels, providing editing and cover illustrations for many of his publications. She is also an independent writer and editor.
Ahern's artwork is found in public and private collections in the United States, including Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis; Regions Hospital, Minneapolis; Fairview University Hospitals, Minneapolis; The Marsh, A Center for Healing, Minnetonka, MN; Springboard for the Arts, St. Paul.
Video of Jodie Ahern speaking about the Women’s Art Institute, 2013