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I want to compress time, to exist between the expanse of prehistory and the unruly future, and awaken themes of a shared world through laborious handicraft and experiential, auditory, visual, and performative means. My work entangles species through surreal anatomical play, addressing collective grief in the face of extinction. I mythologize biological systems through material exploration ranging from crochet, wet felting, cardboard pulp, and ceramics to wearable art and song. Drawing from my experience with chronic pain and healing, the physical form holds palpable purpose within the work, an infused emotional boundary between skin and air. I create beings that act as a mirror, companion, chthonic guide, and use vocalization and mimicry to build up an underbelly of fertile accompaniment. The loss of species disrupts communication, the land itself. Remaining birds of an endangered group invent new songs, insects modulate their pitch to be heard over traffic, change in ocean acidification and temperature amplifies the speed in which sound travels through the water. My work is influenced by this translation of sound, the weakening of contact, and the invention of something new. Sound has the ability to cut right to the heart, the ears eternally open in constant vibrational negotiation. I want to remember what’s quietly disappearing, commune with ghosts, and foster material relationships between the hard, soft, and intangible.
Lena Ruth is an artist and performer based in Philadelphia and NYC. Melding fibers with sculpture and sound, her work engages with biological vulnerability, melancholia, and myth. She has shown both nationally and internationally at places like the Hangaram Art Museum in South Korea, the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee, and assorted galleries and artist spaces in New York, including a solo exhibition at Tempest in Ridgewood, Queens. She has performed across NYC at venues like Joe’s Pub and Mercury Lounge, and released an album in 2022 with microlabel, cmntx. She has completed residencies at the Icelandic Textile Center and Bank Street School and was recently a Finalist in the Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Prize. She studied Studio Art and Art History at Skidmore College and holds an MFA in Fibers and Material Studies from Tyler School of Art and Architecture.
2026
Tyler School of Art and Architecture, MFA in Fiber and Material Studies
Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Teaching in Higher Education Certificate
2019
Skidmore College, BS in Studio Art and Art History, Honors in Art
2016
Sarah Lawrence Abroad: Berlin, studied visual arts and architecture
2017
Penland School of Crafts, figurative ceramics
InLiquid Award, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, 2026
Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Prize Finalist 2025
American Tapestry Alliance International Student Award 2019
Honors in Senior Thesis Exhibition at Skidmore College
Dean’s Award at Tyler School of Art and Architecture
2023
Icelandic Textile Center
Laura Lenzner Teaching Artist Residency, Bank Street School
2025-2026
Tyler School of Art and Architecture
• Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Fibers and Material Studies class
2019-2024
Bank Street School, New York, NY
• Worked with ages 3-7 substitute teaching Music and Movement
• Worked with ages 5-11 teaching afterschool Fiber Arts classes
• Worked as a midday lower school teacher and shadow teacher
2023-2024
Trinity Afterschool classes, New York, NY
• Worked with ages 8-11 teaching afterschool Fiber Arts classes
2022-2024
Trinity Afterschool program, New York, NY
• Worked with ages 5-11 assisting in transitions, art projects, and games
2019
P.P.O.W. Gallery Intern, New York, NY
• Worked as a gallery intern assisting in gallery maintenance, updating the gallery database and archival records, and aiding in any gallery events.
2018
Amanda Browder Artist Assistant, Brooklyn, NY
• Helped organize sewing days where we taught people how to use a sewing machine, pin, and arrange the fabric for a large scale fabric installation.
2026
Behemoth, Temple Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
2024
The New Body, Tempest, Queens, NY
2025
Unbound, Automat, Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Sculpture Forever, Stella Elkins Gallery, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, PA
Intersecting Realms, Trygve Lie Gallery, New York, NY
T.B.D., Stella Elkins Gallery, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, PA
8th Fiber Art Festival, Seoul Art Center, Hangaram Art Museum, South Korea
Timeless Textiles: Traditional Craft Meets Contemporary Art
No Laughing Matter, Art Show Projects, New York, NY
2024
If Not a Note, A Chasm, Neptune in June, Port Chester, NY
Gasp!, Loft Artists Association, Stamford, Ct
Better Red Than Dead, Bullet Space, New York, NY
Interwoven, Bob’s Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2023
American Tapestry Biennial 14: New Dimensions, Appalachian Center for Crafts, Smithville, TN
Illiquid Objects, Studio 9D, New York, NY
þetta reddast, Icelandic Textile Center, Blönduós, Iceland
2022
Pet Cemetery, Bob’s Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2021
The Weight of Arms, Chashama Gala, New York, NY
Emerging Artist Showcase, Fiber Art Now, The Appalachian Center of Crafts, Smithville, TN
2020
In Between, Local Project, Queens, NY
2019
Japanese Culture and Art Travel Seminar Exhibition, Maeda Hiromi Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
Skidmore College Senior Thesis Exhibition, Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
2018
Juried Student Show, Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
2017
Juried Student Show, Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY
2025
Dead Skin, Nine Gallery, New York, NY
Timeless Textiles ‘Mediums Revealed’ Series, Peters Valley School of Craft, 2025
The New Body: A Conversation with Lena Ruth Schwartz and Defne Tutus, WhiteHot Magazine of Contemporary Art, 2024
Artsinsquare Magazine, Issue 7, 2024
Talking Textiles Issue 7: Character, New York Textile Month, 2022
ShoutOut LA, Local Stories, 2023
Emerging Artist Showcase, Fiber Art Network Magazine, 2020
