SHORT BIO
Lena Wolff is an artist, craftswoman, independent teacher, and democracy activist who has been based in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1990's. Her work extends out of American folk-art and quilt making traditions, minimalism, geometric abstraction, pattern and decoration movements, and social practice, with a studio output that spans drawing, collage, sculpture, text, frequent collaboration, and public projects. In 2017, she formed Art for Democracy, beginning with an anti-hate poster in the Bay Area, followed by a widespread national public art campaign to boost voter participation. Over the last two decades, her work has been presented in galleries and museums across the country and is held in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, ONE National Lesbian and Gay Archives, Berkeley Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, San Francisco Arts Commission, Alameda County Arts Commission, Cleveland Clinic, University of Iowa Museum, Stanford University 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. In recognition of their work merging art and civic engagement, November 12th was declared “Miriam Klein Stahl and Lena Wolff Day” in the City of Berkeley in 2019. Lena’s work can be found at Sarah Shepard Gallery in Larkspur, California and Haines Gallery, in San Francisco.
Photo by Casey Orr
EXTENDED BIO
Lena Wolff is an interdisciplinary visual artist, craftswoman, independent teacher, and democracy activist 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. Her work extends out of American folk-art and quilt making traditions, minimalism, geometric abstraction, pattern and decoration movements, and social practice, with a studio output that spans drawing, collage, sculpture, text, frequent collaboration, and public projects.
In 2017, she formed Art for Democracy, beginning with an anti-hate poster in the Bay Area, followed by a widespread national public art campaign to boost voter participation that launches ahead of critical elections in the US every two years in the format of billboards, free posters, downloadable files, and digital images. Alongside these projects, she actively fundraises for grassroots voting organizations in swing states, having raised over $350,000 for these groups to date.
Lena 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.
Miriam Klein Stahl & Lena Wolff, rally, the City of Berkeley, 2017
Over the last two decades, Lena’s work has been presented in galleries and museums including the de Young Museum, 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 held in the public collections of ONE National Lesbian and Gay Archives, 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 others.
She lives with her wife, artist, teacher and illustrator, Miriam Klein Stahl and their daughter in Berkeley, California. In recognition of their work merging art and civic engagement, November 12th was declared “Miriam Klein Stahl and Lena Wolff Day” in the City of Berkeley in 2019. Lena’s work can be found at Sarah Shepard Gallery in Larkspur, California and Haines Gallery, in San Francisco.