Treiman graduated from the University of Iowa where she studied with Philip Guston in 1943. Treiman began drawing as a child, and by eighteen had won her first art award. She had her first professional exhibition in Chicago at the age of twenty-eight. During her career, Trieman had over one-hundred solo exhibitions. For the delicate and finely wrought skill of her draughtsmanship, Treiman was often compared with Rembrandt. A few of her most significant exhibitions were "Retrospective 1947-1977" in 1978 at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdale Park, California; "Drawings" at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; "Self Portraits" at California State University, San Jose, California; and "Friends and Strangers," a travelling exhibition whose venues included museums and galleries in California, New York, and Oregon. She also exhibited a number of times at Schmidt Bingham Gallery, New York, including in 1986, 1988, and 1990.
Treiman's paintings and drawings belong in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; and the Portland Museum of Art, Oregon. Treiman's fantasy-filled realism borrows from the traditions of Goya, Daumier, Donatello, and Bonnard, and yet she created a unique style and artistic language all her own. Treiman was often described as a maverick, challenging current trends. She died in 1991 in California.
