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.