"Kara Patrowicz: The Sally Bishop Prize" at Worcester Art Museum
Updated: Sep 7
Truly honored to share my upcoming solo exhibition, Kara Patrowicz: The Sally Bishop Prize, at Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, MA. On view August 1-November 1, 2026. More information about the show can be found here and in the press release. Excerpts and installation photos below:
"Patrowicz creates depictions of family, motherhood, and everyday life in tapestries and felted work. Trained in oil painting, she takes a painterly approach to felting—a technique that blends fibers, typically sheep’s wool, into dense fabric or three-dimensional forms. The figurative scenes and household settings that make up the majority of her work are inspired by her experience as a mother of three young children, and explore the rhythms of caregiving within the early years of parenting. Vigil (Tilma) (2026), one of eight newly created works in the exhibition, incorporates found materials, including a baby swaddle, crib sheet, burp cloth, and washcloth. This large-scale, draping artwork references the religious imagery of The Virgin of Guadalupe, which can be seen at WAM in a painting by Miguel Cabrera (about 1755), on view in the Museum’s new American Art Galleries starting April 25.
“I want my fiber paintings to embody the ordinary, tender, invisible ways that the labor of caregiving can shape the world around us,” says Patrowicz. “Acts of care are often only discernible in the traces they leave. In repurposing my own ‘domestic detritus,’ I seek to honor the states of exhaustion, vulnerability, and yearning that can accompany mothering.”
Kara Patrowicz: The Sally Bishop Prize is the fifth collaborative exhibition between the Worcester Art Museum and ArtsWorcester. The organizations began their partnership in 2017 and have since held a solo exhibition every two years for the winner of the Biennial. The exhibitions provide winning artists with important museum credentials, while placing their work in conversation with world-renowned artists in the Museum’s collection."
Installation photos courtesy of Worcester Art Museum. Detail of "Vigil (Tilma)," 2026, felting with wool and mulberry silk, fabric applique, embroidery, fiber fill, crib sheet, burp cloth, washcloth, baby swaddle, 72×54 inches. Photo credit: Will Howcroft.
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