Saya Woolfalk received a B.A. from Brown University in 2001, participated in The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2004, and received an M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004. She later participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in 2006. She has held residencies at The Studio Museum in Harlem and Harvestworks, and was a recipient of a Fullbright Fellowship in 2005, as well as a NYFA Fellowship in 2007.
Woolfalk's work has been written about in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and the Chicago Tribune, among others. Her work is held in several important collections, including JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and Tufts University."My work considers the idea that symbolic and ideological systems can be activated and re-imagined through collaboration, imaginative play and masquerade. To effect this re-imagining objects, bodies, and landscapes are constructed to immerse us in the logic of another place. In many ways my works become the repository of the dreams and ideas of the many people who participate in producing and imagining the contours of the works. In the tradition of the fable or folk story, I map the desires and ideas of people to create narratives that attempt to be relevant to a contemporary audience."
