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Lena Wolff is an interdisciplinary visual artist, craftswoman and activist for democracy who has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1990’s. Wolff’s work extends out of American folk-art traditions while at the same time being rooted in minimalism, geometric abstraction, Op art, social practice, feminist and political art. Her broad interconnected artistic output includes drawing, collage, sculpture, text-based works, music and public projects. In recent years, she generated several projects that contribute to civic engagement, including a widespread anti-hate poster campaign and a public art initiative to boost voter participation that gained national reach in the past three election cycles in the US. Her work has been exhibited nationally and collected by ONE National Lesbian and Gay Archives, the Berkeley Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum of California, the San Francisco History Collection at San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Arts Commission, Alameda County Arts Commission, Cleveland Clinic, University of Iowa Museum and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, among others. She lives with her wife, artist, teacher and illustrator, Miriam Klein Stahl and their daughter in Berkeley, California.

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Lena Wolff is an interdisciplinary visual artist, craftswoman and activist for democracy who has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1990’s. Originally born in Larkspur, California, she grew up living semi-communally with her family at the Zen Center of Los Angeles in the 1970’s and then moved to Paris and outside of Amsterdam as a young person before returning to the U.S. Wolff’s work extends out of American folk art and quilt-making traditions while at the same time being connected to minimalism, geometric abstraction, Op art, social practice, feminist and political art. Her broad interconnected artistic output includes drawing, collage, sculpture, text-based works, music and public projects.

In recent years, Wolff generated several projects to contribute to civic engagement, including a widespread anti-hate poster campaign and a public art initiative to boost voter engagement with national reach in over 100 cities (in 2018, 2020, 2022) the format of posters, postcards, billboards, free downloadable files and digital images. Alongside these projects, Wolff organized two fundraisers that raised over $200,000 for voting organizations led by people of color in swing states ahead of the November 2020 election, directing funding to Black Voters Matter Fund, Mi Familia Vota, and more. Wolff is also the founder of the vocal ensemble FUTURE CHORUS that formed during a residency at the de Young Museum in San Francisco 2017 with musician and artist Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. Led by choral director Claire Plumb, the chorus performed in public spaces throughout the Bay Area from 2017 to 2019. Made up of over 25 musicians, friends and artists, FUTURE CHORUS sang a repertoire of original arrangements and cover songs that call upon love, resilience, imagination, inclusivity and determination to fight for a better future.

Over the last two decades, Wolff’s work has been presented in galleries and museums including the de Young Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Headlands Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Haines Gallery, Johansson Projects, CULT Exhibitions and Sarah Shepard Gallery, among other spaces. In addition to private collections, her work is in the public collections of the ONE National Lesbian and Gay Archives, the Berkeley Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Arts Commission, the San Francisco History Collection at San Francisco Public Library, Alameda County Arts Commission, Stanford University, University of Iowa Museum and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, among other collections.

She lives with her wife, artist, teacher and illustrator, Miriam Klein Stahl and their daughter in Berkeley, California. November 12th was named Miriam Klein Stahl and Lena Wolff Day by Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin in 2019 for their work that merges art and civic engagement.

Wolff’s work can be found at Sarah Shepard Gallery in Larkspur and Haines Gallery in San Francisco.