Museum for Art in Wood presents ​‘Out of Place: The Windgate Arts Residency Program in Wood 2026 Museum for Art in Wood

On August 7, the Museum for Art in Wood (141 N. 3rd Street, Philadel­phia, PA, 19106) presents the opening of Out of Place, an exhi­bi­tion of new work created by the Resi­dent Fellows of the 2026 Windgate Arts Resi­dency Program in Wood (WARP Wood). Each year, the Museum assem­bles a select cohort of artists for a two-month resi­dency, where they live and work in Philadel­phia as a collab­o­ra­tive unit at NextFab’s studios. The culmi­na­tion of the Resi­dent Fellows’ work in Out of Place reflects their creative journey, featur­ing both indi­vid­ual and collab­o­ra­tive pieces, includ­ing works made before and during the program. The 2026 WARP Wood exhi­bi­tion is on display in the Museum’s gallery from August 7 to October 25.

WARP Wood is a highly regarded inter­na­tional resi­dency support­ing artis­tic explo­ration in wood. Now in its 29th year, the two-month resi­dency brings together a select cohort to live and work in a collab­o­ra­tive envi­ron­ment. The trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence for the selected artists, docu­men­tar­i­ans, and schol­ars is rooted in creativ­ity, research, and the exchange of ideas.

Together, the Resi­dent Fellows’ work in Out of Place explores a central ques­tion: what happens when some­thing, or someone, is removed from where we expect it to belong? Through sculp­ture, furni­ture, instal­la­tion, and trans­formed func­tional objects, the artists examine belong­ing, iden­tity, memory, labor, and the ways famil­iar mate­ri­als and every­day objects can take on entirely new meaning.

Cana­dian sculp­tor Mark Tan offers the exhi­bi­tion’s most overtly polit­i­cal perspec­tive, asking who has the author­ity to deter­mine who belongs. His new basin instal­la­tion refer­ences colo­nial hygiene systems in the Philip­pines, where clean­li­ness became a tool for construct­ing racial differ­ence and defin­ing who was consid­ered ​“clean,” ​“healthy,” and ​“civi­lized.” In contrast, Austin-based sculp­tor Adam Atkin­son turns inward, drawing on his expe­ri­ence growing up queer in a strict Mormon house­hold to create an auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal bust and wear­able sculp­tures that chal­lenge tradi­tional notions of masculin­ity while blur­ring the bound­aries between body, orna­ment, and identity.

Ques­tions of trans­for­ma­tion continue in the work of sculp­tural furni­ture designer Joyce Lin, whose metic­u­lously crafted red oak tree grad­u­ally reveals itself as a func­tional coat rack. Using fabric, epoxy, steel, and paint to recre­ate bark and leaves, Lin dissolves the bound­ary between nature and arti­fice while embrac­ing cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. Phoenix-based inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Liza Stout simi­larly reimag­ines famil­iar domes­tic forms through a monu­men­tal wooden basket inspired by a historic Shaker laundry crate designed for two sisters to carry together. Accom­pa­nied by photographs of the artist acti­vat­ing the sculp­ture along­side her sister, the work trans­forms an ordi­nary house­hold object into a medi­ta­tion on shared labor, care, kinship, and the often-over­looked histo­ries embed­ded in domestic work.

Themes of uncer­tainty and refuge emerge in the work of Israeli multi­dis­ci­pli­nary artist Niv Tishbi, whose sculp­tures examine how conflict reshapes every­day life. A crimson bath occu­pied by a reclin­ing figure shifts between comfort and danger, while addi­tional works use the wood’s natural grain to evoke fear, resilience, and fleet­ing moments of calm amid periods of unrest. Serving as the Artist and Docu­men­tary Fellow, Minneapo­lis-based sculp­tor and film­maker Anders Nien­staedt closes the exhi­bi­tion with works that explore archi­tec­ture, design, and the promise of utopia. Tower­ing stacks of carved wooden elements evoke bird­houses, forti­fi­ca­tions, and shel­ters, invit­ing visi­tors to consider places of protec­tion that remain just out of reach and to ques­tion how the systems and struc­tures we build shape our under­stand­ing of purpose and belonging.

Midway through the resi­dency, Daniel Foun­tain, PhD, Senior Lecturer and Direc­tor of Post­grad­u­ate Research in Art History and Visual Culture at the Univer­sity of Exeter, joined the cohort as the Scholar Fellow. During his week-long resi­dency, Foun­tain conducted inter­views with each Artist Fellow, partic­i­pated in discus­sions, and devel­oped the exhi­bi­tion essay that frames Out of Place. His work posi­tions the artists’ indi­vid­ual prac­tices within broader conver­sa­tions about belong­ing, displace­ment, mate­r­ial trans­for­ma­tion, and the many ways people and objects can exist ​“out of place.”

The opening recep­tion of Out of Place takes place on Friday, August 7, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., featur­ing a Resi­dent Fellow-led tour of the exhi­bi­tion begin­ning at 6 p.m. Accom­pa­nied by photographs, essays, and docu­men­tary mate­ri­als, the exhi­bi­tion offers an inti­mate look at the evolu­tion of each artist’s prac­tice during the residency.

“The Museum for Art in Wood is proud to welcome an excep­tional cohort of artists whose work reflects the expan­sive possi­bil­i­ties of wood,” said Jennifer-Navva Milliken, the Museum’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor and Chief Curator. ​“This year’s resi­dents span prac­tices from sculp­ture and furni­ture to perfor­mance and social engage­ment. During their time in Philadel­phia, they deep­ened their work while build­ing mean­ing­ful connec­tions. Now in its 29th year, the Windgate Arts Resi­dency Program in Wood remains a career-defin­ing expe­ri­ence, foster­ing new ideas, ambi­tious work, and lasting artistic relationships.”

Every year since 1995, the Museum for Art in Wood has awarded the pres­ti­gious and sought-after fellow­ships to a cohort consist­ing of artists, a student artist, a docu­men­tary artist, and a scholar. For its 2025 and 2026 resi­dency sessions, the Museum received a record-break­ing number of appli­ca­tions, with a greater inter­na­tional response than ever before.

The WARP Wood fellows live and work in Philadel­phia, with studio facil­i­ties at NextFab (1800 N. Amer­i­can Street), a state-of-the-art, member­ship-based maker­space. In addi­tion to studio work, fellows will partic­i­pate in a range of activ­i­ties that connect them with Philadelphia’s vibrant art commu­nity, includ­ing artist visits, museum tours, and meet­ings with local artists and collec­tors. The Museum also shared blog posts on its website that tracked the fellows’ progress and expe­ri­ences in real time in the weeks leading up to the final exhibition.

Since its incep­tion in 1995, the Windgate Arts Resi­dency Program in Wood has hosted more than 160 artists from around the world. Alumni include promi­nent figures such as curator and histo­rian Glenn Adamson, Wiscon­sin-based wood­work­ing artist Katie Hudnall, Cali­for­nia-based cabinet-maker and artist Terry Holz­green, Korean sculp­tor Cha Jong-Rye, Japan­ese artist Maiko Sugano, San Fran­cisco-based curator and artist Deidre Visser, and Ghana­ian fantasy coffin carpen­ter Eric Adjetey Anang. The program contin­ues to elevate and expand the possi­bil­i­ties of wood as a medium through inno­va­tion, commu­nity, and cross-disci­pli­nary exchange. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www​.muse​um​forart​in​wood​.org.