WOOLPUNK®: Sunflowers & Graffiti’d Sky in the Garden State

September 10, 2022-July 30, 2023

In fall 2022 MAM will feature new monumental artwork by New Jersey-based fiber artist WOOLPUNK®. Created specifically for MAM, Sunflowers & Graffiti’d Sky in the Garden State is based on a photograph of a community garden in the artist’s hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey. Printed on a large-scale banner, this image will be embroidered and obsessively stitched by the artist. WOOLPUNK® invites the MAM community to donate recycled fabrics that she will incorporate into this work, with the mission to bring attention to clothing waste and landfill issues in the state of New Jersey and beyond.

The community’s commitment to rekindling nature in an otherwise overpopulated, concrete jungle symbolizes a social need for healthier, more environmentally friendly living standards. In a former life, WOOLPUNK® managed the United Way of Hudson County’s resale clothing stores where the daily waste of clothing became apparent and overwhelming to the artist.

Image
Tall sunflowers in front of a graffiti covered wall.

The artist's work commonly focuses on American struggles such as environmental issues, mass shootings, and economic disparities in the hope to stimulate community resilience. The artist was represented in two exhibitions at the Museum: New Jersey Crafts Annual: New Directions in Fiber Art (2019) and From New York to New Mexico: New Acquisitions (2021). Recently her mixed media works Occulent I & II were featured at the Occulus Transportation Hub at 2 World Trade Center in New York City in tribute to the 20th anniversary of 9/11. WOOLPUNK® is the Director of Cultural Affairs for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Hudson County Community College.


Woolpunk©: Sunflowers & Graffiti’d Sky in the Garden State is made possible with generous support from the Lyn and Glenn Reiter Endowed Special Exhibition Fund, the Susan V. Bershad Charitable Fund, Patti and Jimmy Elliott, Tracy Higgins and James Leitner, Christine James and Nick DeToustain, Toni LeQuire-Schott and Newton B. Schott, Jr., and Margo and Frank Walter.

All MAM programs are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Vance Wall Foundation, Partners for Health Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and Museum members.