News
What World Do You Want to Live in?
TEDxKCWomen, February 1, 2019
”Saya Woolfalk follows the tradition of great science fiction writers by telling stories that help us make the incomprehensible, or yet to be considered — comprehensible and considered. A form of future-forward imagining, Saya’s work helps paints a picture of a world you might want to live in.”
Print & Politics
E/AB Fair, 20th Edition, October 27, 2018
Woolfalk in conversation with independent curator, Dexter Wimberly.
Member Gallery Talk: Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams
MoMA, October 3, 2018
Panel discussion with Hannah Beachler, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Sarah Suzuki, Filip de Boeck, Sammy Baloji, and Saya Woolfalk.
Happy Birthday, Nam June Paik
Smithsonian American Art Museum, July 22, 2018
In conversation with SAAM curator of time-based media, Saisha Grayson, on Paik’s enduring legacy and influence on Woolfalk’s art.
If You Loved Black Panther, You Will Love Lessons from the Institute of Empathy
Published in The Stranger, by Charles Mudede, June 20, 2018
”The superhero flick Black Panther brought the underground art (its theories, its sounds, its language, its visions of black secret technologies) to the masses. As a consequence, anyone who has seen the movie is pretty prepared to connect with the science fiction of Woolfalk's ChimaTEK, or any of the other works in the Lessons from the Institute of Empathy exhibit.”
ARTNOIR: Critical Sound Boarding with Elia Alba, Firelei Báez and Saya Woolfalk
School of Visual Arts, February 27, 2018
“In this intimate dialogue, Báez – who primarily creates works on paper – and multimedia artists Alba and Woolfalk discussed their individual practices, social commentary, and how their education and relationships with other artists and each other have shaped their work and propelled it forward. The conversation was moderated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, independent curator and co-founder of ARTNOIR.”
Editor’s Picks: 14 Things to See in New York This Week
artnet News, by Sarah Cascone, February 26, 2018
For “ARTNOIR: Critical Sound Boarding with Elia Alba, Firelei Báez and Saya Woolfalk.”
BJ The Chicago Kid & Saya Woolfalk 'Dare Greatly' at Art Basel
Collaboration for RevoltTV at Art Basel, December 22, 2017
”The pair sat down for weeks and ironed out an immersive experience that came to life in Miami's Wynwood. Backed by Saya's incredible kaleidoscoping digital art, BJ serenaded the packed crowd with several of his top hits.”
Best of 2017: Our Top 20 NYC Art Shows
Hyperallergic, by Benjamin Sutton, December 17, 2017.
“I can never get enough of Saya Woolfalk’s expeditions into the world of the Emphatics, a species of human-plant hybrids whose dazzling world incorporates elements of performative mask traditions, Eastern religion, cyberfeminist theory, and more. This exhibition revealed more of the world of this transcendental species.”
Saya Woolfalk's Empathic World
Articulate with John Cotter, PBS, Aired November 14, 2017.
An exposé of Woolfalk’s Empathics series, alongside Kyle Abraham, Maggie Nelson and Ruth Slenczynska.
Experimental Animation Visiting Artist Series
CalArts, School of Film/Video Technical Resources, October 27, 2017
Eddie Owens Martin Drive: Thinking Of/Through Pasaquan
The Road Less Traveled Conference, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, September 23, 2017
Panel with Jonathan Frederick Walz, Fred C. Fussell, Dr. Ann Smart Martin, Saya Woolfalk, and James Ogburn. Moderated by Michael McFalls.”Panelists shared insights on how they curated Pasaquan as a lived-in space and how they plan to continue to make it an immersive environment that is innovative, interactive, and continually reinventing itself.“
Why Shamanic Practices Are Making a Comeback in Contemporary Art
Artsy, by Tess Thackara, August 11, 2017
My Favorite Things: Saya Woolfalk on SAM's Chinoise Tapestries
Seattle Art Museum, May 26, 2017
Woolfalk discusses her “favorite things in SAM's collection and offers a new perspective on the Chinoise Tapestries, one that layers the histories evident in the intricate embroidery of these objects.”
Dreamtime Award for Artistry
Downtown83 Artists Owning the Future, May 2017
Honored during Aljira's 2017 Benefit Auction
Limited Edition Print to benefit The Laundromat Project
Image of print on website
Queering Contemporary Asian American Art
University of Washington Press, Book edited by Laura Kina and Jan Christian Bernabe, May 2017
Saya Woolfalk's Interview published in book
No Commissions Shanghai
Feature for No Commissions Shanghai, April 5, 2017
Video work by Saya Woolfalk featured on Alicia Key's Instagram
In the Studio with Saya Woolfalk's Empathics
Sculpture Magazine's Blog, by Jan Garden Castro, April 5, 2017
"Her ChimaTEK Empathics live in a future world that reframes core questions facing us today: identity, cultural transference, cloning, and virtual reality vs. real life."
David Ambrose on Vija Celmins and Saya Woolfalk
Whitehot Magazine, by David Ambrose, March 2017
"These collaborators act as Woofalk's hands and fingers, helping her to extend her vision beyond the limitations of the personal to include their shared experiences and idea of the communal."
Fantastical New Bodies
Brooklyn Rail, by Saya Woolfalk, March 1, 2017
Written by the artist about the influence of textiles and fashion on her work
Worlds Created: Saya Woolfalk
Cadillac, February 7, 2017
"Each piece that she builds becomes another landmass of her story, another narrative of these otherworldly women's lives, while questioning and challenging the utopian possibilities of cultural hybridity."
Feelings Are Facts: A Neuro-Cinema
Whitney Museum of American Art, Jan 13, 2017
A Conversation with Chrissie Iles, Lynn Hersman Leeson, Andrea Crespo, and Saya Woolfalk
Afrofuturism: The Next Generation
The New York Times, by Ruth La Ferla, Dec. 12, 2016
"Afrofuturism is a current in the multimedia installations of the artist Saya Woolfalk, whose utopian universes and Empathics, a future race fusing--and all but erasing - racial and ethnic boundaries, were featured this year in shows at the Brooklyn Museum, a light show in Times Square and, just this month, an installation at Art Basel Miami Beach."
The Artist with the All-Seeing Eye
Flavorwire, by Andy Phillips, Dec 4, 2016
"The hybridity and interconnectedness of her subjects make clear that Woolfalk believes a complete transformation of society is both necessary and imminent."
Interview and Perrier Celebrate ARTXTRA
Interview Magazine, Nov. 30, 2016
Photo and mention of Saya Woolfalk's piece shown at Miami Art Basel
8@8: Your Morning Scoop Alicia Keys graces the cover of 'V' Magazine
Nylon, By Carolyn Hanson, Nov. 1, 2016
Mention of the artist for the Perrier campaign ARTXTRA
Perrier Lauches ARTXTRA, A New Program to Support Groundbreaking Contemporary Artists
PR Newswire, Perrier, Nov 1, 2016
Nominees for Perrier Artist of the Year
Plants Humans of the Future: An Interview with Saya Woolfalk
Bad at Sports, by Caroline Picard, Aug 30, 2016
"With that intersection at play, Woolfalk offers alternative models for cultural exchange, societal hierarchy, and the way they mirrors many own conventional norms today."
"Disguise: Masks and Global African Art," Where Tradition Meets Avant-Garde
New York Times, by Ken Johnson, June 23, 2016
"Her (Woolfalk's) spectacular installation "ChimaTEK: Virtual Chimeric Space" incorporates video projections, fields of colored dots painted on walls and floors and Mannequins dressed in sumptuous costumes of her own creation."
Review: 'ChimaTEK' Offers Crystal Visions at a Transit Hub
New York Times, by Gia Kourlas, June 17, 2016
"The artist Saya Woolfalk has a healthy imagination - one that may be infused with a greater sense of the fantastical than most."
Saya Woolfalk's ChimaCloud: June's Midnight Moment transforms the screens of Times Square
Art Daily, June 29, 2016
"Saya Woolfalk's ChimaCloud transforms our metro hub and big screens into an imaginary transport hub to a utopian society where inhabitants adopt new behaviors, psychologies and physiologies."
Artist Saya Woolfalk Is Challenging Ideas of Race and Cultural Boundaries
The Huffington Post, by Alanah Joseph, June 10, 2016
"Artist Saya Woolfalk is disrupting cultural boundaries by creating worlds that push museum goers to question who they are and how they navigate through a multicultural world."
Women Make The World Go Round
WBAI-FM State of the Arts, June 17, 2016
"Saya Woolfalk will talk with us about her new digital installation ChimaCloud that is on display at Times Square through their program Midnight Moments."
Brooklyn Museum Goes Behind the Mask
The Wall Street Journal, by Andy Battaglia, May 12, 2016
"People's ideas of what it means to be contemporary are shifting so much," the 36-year-old artist said, noting fast-expanding notions of nationality and gender. "This is an exploration of that."
"Centered on a fictional company - ChimaTEK, named for the mythological hybrid creature known as the chimera - the work surveys the firm's fantastical products, all created to let humans adopt different personas and try on different identities."
A New Brooklyn Museum Exhibit Explores the Transformative Power of African Masquerade
The Village Voice, by Siddhartha Mitter, May 10, 2016
"an installation by Saya Woolfalk that feels like a temple in a science fiction movie. Tall costumed sculptures in ritual stances and morphing faces on video screens depict a futuristic world in which people can access a "chimeric virtual existence" beyond their assigned identities."
The Brooklyn Museum's African Mask Show Is a Complex, Powerful Exploration of Identity
Artsy Editorial, by Karen Kedmey, May 3, 2016
"In a decidedly maximalist vein, American artist Saya Woolfalk harnesses installation, video projections, and sci-fi into a gorgeous, otherworldly presentation that suggests the flux and hybridity of contemporary identities."
River to River to Include Will Rawls, Dance Heginbotham and Eiko
The New York Times, by Joshua Barone, April 27, 2016
"The interdisciplinary artist Saya Woolfalk's 'ChimaTEK: ChimaCloud Control Center" (June 16, 21, and 23) opens the festival with an array of live performances at Fulton Center."
At the Brooklyn Museum, African Masks Take On A Fresh Glow
W Magazine, by Stephanie Eckardt, April 25, 2016
Photo of Saya Woolfalk's work
Disguise (Part 1): Saya Woolfalk + William Villalongo
Clocktower radio series, hosted by Jake Nussbaum, April 18, 2016
"Host Jake Nussbaum talks to artists Saya Woolfalk, William Villalongo and curator Kevin Dumouchelle, all of whom are involved in the exhibition, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, on display at Brooklyn Museum from April 29-September 18, 2016."
Artist Talk: Saya Woolfalk
Urban Video Project, April 14, 2016
"In celebration of these dual exhibitions, Saya Woolfalk will give an artist talk in the Everson's Hosmer Auditorium discussing her rich interdisciplinary practice."
Review Identity transformed in Fowler's 'Disguise: Masks and Global African Art'
Los Angeles Times, by Christopher Knight, January 27, 2016
"The eccentric mannequins are cross-cultural. Elements of African and Buddhist style are woven into their colorful, hand-crafted robes. The assembly suggests masked female priests at a mysterious religious shrine with whirling pop mandalas where visions from beyond might safely land. Call it Transcendental Psychedelia, perhaps."
Saya Woolfalk at Fowler Museum's Disguise: Masks & Global African Art
Garin Hussenjian Blog, October 24, 2015
"That experience of connection is no small feat of Woolfalk's. Her work created an otherwordly place that touched three generations of women, in one family, all at once." (the author, her 6 year old daughter and her grandmother.)
Saya Woolfalk's Happy People
Art21 Magazine, by Jacquelyn Gleisner, October 20. 2015
"As I described my feelings of euphoria inside her installation, Woolfalk said, 'I'm not trying to make people happy, but I want to give {viewers} some sense of psycho-social pleasure."
Future Perfect
Brown Alumni Magazine, by Leslie Weeden, September/October 2015
"Through painting, sculpture, video, and performance, she documents this utopian society using bright - almost noen - colors, richly patterned fabrics, elaborate headdresses, face paint, and wings made of multilayered petal-shaped cloth."
Artists of African Descent Don Disguises in the Digital Age
Hyperallergic, by Kenta Murakami, September 3, 2015
"Guised as a tongue-in-cheek corporate venture, Saya Woolfalk's installation of lavish, post-human Buddhist avatars promises to give 'clients access to a chimeric virtual existence' through 'trademarked human hybridization technologies.'
Two Chelsea Galleries Go Wall Out for Summer
Hyperallergic, by Benjamin Sutton, July 14, 2015
"At Edlin, the first work visitors will see - indeed, it's such a gripping sight through the gallery's glass facade that it probably compels countless passersby to come in - is Saya Woofalk's sci-fi installation 'ChimaTEK: Future Relic" (2015)."
Review: "Anthems for the Mother Earth Goddess"
The New York Times, by Ken Johnson, July 9, 2015
"'ChimaTEK: Future Relic,' Saya Woolfalk's optically dazzling installation in the gallery's front room, revolves around a female mannequin adorned with jewelry and lace - a New Age goddess figure."
Global African Artists Explore The Meaning of Disguise In The 21st Century
The Huffington Post, by Priscilla Frank, June 24, 2015
"For this project, I thought a lot about ideas of diaspora. What is the diasporic notion of a performance? What does it mean to be contemporary global citizen? How can an installation make someone feel the way a global citizen might feel if they weren't displaced, if they were actually located and welcomed?"
Saya Woolfalk: 'ChimaTEK: Hybridity Visualization System"
The New York Times, by Ken Johnson, February 19, 2015
"Saya Woolfalk's engagingly imaginative exhibition evoke the lobby for a New Age boutique. It includes paintings of psychedelic kimonos, digital animations of archetypal iconography and exotic avatars and colorful mannequin heads decorated with bones and jewelry."
David Ebony's Top 10 New York Gallery Shows for January
Artnet news, by David Ebony, January 27, 2015
"The richly detailed collages, mostly schematic portraits of tribal women, are especially seductive, as are the colorful and hypnotic animated videos that often appear on monitors inset in intricate, custom-fabricated frames- in one instance, adorned with painted bones."
Saya Woolfalk In Institute of Empathy
Artmag by Deutsche Bank, 2015
"In Woolfalk's world, everything is in a constant state of change; the boundaries between sexes, races, and even human, animal, and plant have dissolved."
Get Your Fix of a Sinister Post-Human Future
Hyperallergic, by Hrag Vartanian, November 7, 2014
Her installation resembles the laboratories of science fiction, where hybrid humans are suspended as if they are hanging out to dry after being churned out of a machine.
Saya Woolfalk Unveils New Work at the Chrysler
Chrysler Museum of Art, Virgina Hilton, November 6, 2014
"In her (Woolfalk's) immersive installation, Woolfalk mixes biology, genetics, and anthropology with needlework, sculpture, glassblowing and video to create a vibrant new world that defies race, cultural labels, and easy definition."
ChimaTEK: Hybridity Visualization Mandala
Youtube video, by Asian Art Museum September 17, 2014
Exhibition and performance at the Asian Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Enter the Mandala: Cosmic Centers and Mental Maps of Himalayan Buddhism
Sci-fi Artist Saya Woolfalk Creates A Hallucinatory Human Mandala From Dancers
The Huffington Post, by Priscilla Frank, September 3, 2014
"Saya Woolfalk doesn't create artworks, she creates worlds."
"The piece invites viewers into a new level of consciousness. 'The mandala is a teaching tool for the visualization of a specific form of consciousness. The idea is that as an audience member comes into the space they're not only inside of a mandala but they're actually seeing and visually experiencing these dancers as mandala. The physicalization of an idea of something."
Saya Woolfalk's Genetically Modified, Ethnically Ambiguous, Human and Plant Hybrids
SF Weekly, by Laura Jaye Cramer, September 3, 2014
"Like the rest of the pieces of Enter the Mandala, ChimaTEK seeks to map the wants and desires of humans, as well as to suggest a path to enlightenment."
Black Futurism: The Creative Destruction and Reconstruction of Race in Contemporary Art
Art21 Magazine, by Nettrice Gaskins, June 24 2014
"Saya Woolfalk's ChimaTEK demonstrates the workings of a synthesizing, hybridizing machine that remixes identities to create hybrid human-plant creatures."
{Working Title}
Goodman Gallery Cape Town, 2014
"Drawing on imagery and strategies involved in the disciplines of biology, psychology, folklore, anthropology and science fiction Woolfalk's_Emphatics_allows for an investigation into the process of cultural transformation."
Saya Woolfalk Artist Interview: The Possibility Of All Kinds of Mixing
Redefine, by Rachel Hays, April 23, 2013
"Woolfalk's multi0faceted works all shrinks down to a very natural process of evolution - one that welcomes the inclusive mixture of many ideas and techniques. Though each of Woolfalk's works is fully-conceptualized prior to its creation, its final product is ultimately unpredictable, subject to flux as her ideas morph through what she consumes and how her mind processes."
Video Program for Lost Lectures Features Rico Gatson, Chelsea Knight, Serkan Özkaya, Zefrey Throwell, and Saya Woolfalk
Hyperallergic, by Hrag Vartanian, April 21, 2014
"This peek into an otherworldly realm suggests a lingering sense of myth plays a role in Woolfalk's work, where figures are in a state of constant transformation."