February 17 – 21
Location: Art Lofts Gallery, 111 N Frances St, Madison, WI
Closing Reception: Friday, February 20, 6-8pm
Molly Green is a ceramic sculptor and art educator currently in the MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her practice ruminates on content around acute and complex trauma, grief, chronic illness and disability, and political-social commentary. Green categorizes the main theme in her work as unpacking The Weight of a New Day, as seen in her current series. Specifically focusing on the impact of experiencing gun violence in a school shooting, multiple medical diagnoses, acute (sudden, short-term) trauma, and the long-term aftereffects such as disenfranchised grief and PTSD. Additionally, her work explores how perceptions of space, place, time, relationships, and the mundane are altered after experiencing traumatic events in relation to the grief process that follows.
Green’s most recent community project, featured in the upcoming show Feed The Birds bridges the gaps in understanding between art and education, trauma and grief, and the individual and communal lived experience. Over the course of the Fall of 2025 to the Spring of 2026, Green has hosted clay bird making workshops, utilizing the restorative properties of clay and the nature of community events to create a safe space for healing practices.
This project is centered around creating a space for healing through art. Clay is an intuitive, immersive, and overall restorative experience that can both unify communities and create space for individual and communal care and grief-healing practices. This activity has allowed individuals to act on their grief both intuitively (expressing/sharing feelings and stories) and instrumentally (task-oriented, thinking through action and making), both individually through each clay bird and socially through gathering for the event! Overall, this show acts as a documentation of all the healing interventions and community events that were held to hold space for any and all who are grieving.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Art MFA Qualifier Exhibition season continues with Molly Green’s art exhibition. The qualifier solo exhibitions are presented by the graduate students during their fourth semester as the evaluation review of their creative work to qualify for advancement in the MFA program. Come view the work and research by our newest cohort of developing artists!