ARTIST STATEMENT

I'm a still-life painter pulling together clusters of objects documenting queer life in the everyday and throughout history. I hold the realities of emotional, cultural, and political systemic devastation of the queer community as it stands as opposed to the risk of freedom: life lived out loud. Inspired by Fragments of Sappho, this work reveals some, but not all, displaying fragments of archival queer literature and resistance publications woven amongst personal narratives, memories, myths, dreams, and relationships. Assembled through chromatic cross-sections and color chasms, I portray affirming ephemera and analyze the contrasting systemic violence beneath the surface. Through a visual language of queer ancestry, I rebuild a home where my whole identity is welcome and celebrated. Through these multi-year observations, I show that queer people are here now. We have been here throughout all of time. 

BIO

Meg Wolensky is a queer nonbinary femme visual artist based in Philadelphia. Wolensky paintings translates colorful fragments of lived experience, memories, dreams, and archival queer resistance publications into a cohesive whole that is reflective of queer identity and ancestry. These intuitive and investigative paintings layer cross sections of pattern, color and trompe-l'oeil objects as indicators of progress as time whips by.

Wolensky's work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, universities and creative venues across the country, including Penn State University, Drexel University, Kutztown University, University of Southern Mississippi, Woodmere Art Museum, InLiquid Gallery, William Way LGBT Community Center, Democratic National Convention and many more. In 2023, Wolensky was awarded InLiquid's Wind Fellowship by a jury of outstanding curators, artists, and arts leaders from the Greater Philadelphia area. 

Wolensky serves as the Managing Director of Continuing Education at Moore College of Art & Design, where they are passionate about designing accessible arts experiences and work-readiness opportunities for marginalized artists of all ages. With a PAFA BFA ('14) and Drexel Arts Administration MS ('16), Wolensky creates solutions informed by creative strategy, nonprofit management, and audience research. Wolensky lends professional curatorial, grant-writing, and arts administration services to queer artists, students, organizations and initiatives.