The first retrospective of the artist’s two decades of world-building installations, the exhibition showcases Woolfalk’s ambitious fictional narrative of an imagined race of women known as “Empathics.” Woolfalk has created for the Empathics’ their own distinctive visual imagery, symbolism, and folklore, which reflect her investigations of African, African American, Japanese, European, and Brazilian art, craft, and storytelling. In this parable told through garment-based sculptures, video, paintings, works on paper, and performances, cultures mix, clash, and are ultimately transformed through shared understanding.
Generous funding was received by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Additional support for the exhibition was provided by The Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley.
