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2025- Texere Artist Residency, Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico
2023- Studio Artist Residency, MRKT Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2021- M.F.A. in Visual Arts, California State University, Fullerton
2017- B.A. in Visual Arts, California State University, Sacramento
Solo Exhibitions
· SOFT CAMP, Neon Raspberry, Occidental, CA, August 2025
· A Future, Fabricated, WAL Public Market Gallery, Sacramento, CA, August 2025
· A Soft Skyward Gaze, Four Barrel, Mission, San Francisco, CA, July 2024
· A Soft Place to Fall, Valencia Street Vintage, San Francisco, CA, November 2023
· Assimilator, Duff Gallery, California State University, Fullerton, CA, December 2021
. Papier, WAL Public Market Gallery, Sacramento, CA, June 2019
· Dans le Jardin, R. W. Witt Gallery, Sacramento State University, September 2017
Selected Group Exhibitions
· All Form, No Function, 120710 Gallery, Berkeley, CA, September - October, 2026
· The Stories We Hold: Journeys through Myth and Memory, Utah Valley University Art Museum, Orem, UT June - September, 2026
· Second Skin, Curated by Dana Peters, Minnow Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA, April 2026
· Huggable Works, Curated by Meredith Frederick, TC Space Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA, January - February 2026
· Yo Gabba Gabba: Super Friends Art Show, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA, October - December, 2025
· Flesh and Form, MRKT Gallery, Berlin, Germany, July 2025
· International Fiber Exhibition XII, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA, June 2025
· Made in California, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA, April 2025
. Art of Food, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA, November, 2024
. Light and Dark, Occidental Center for the Arts, Occidental, CA, October, 2024
. Surrounded by Softness, Curated by Nat Saia, Minnow Gallery, Santa Cruz, CA, August, 2024
· Small Works II, Soft Times Gallery, San Francisco, CA, July, 2023
. Déjà Vu, Curated by Madeline Minnicozzi, GLLRY Garage, San Francisco, CA, May, 2023
. Studio Residency Trio Show, MRKT Gallery, San Francisco, CA, March, 2023
. Less Than and Old Pair of Centenaries III, Trash Lamb Gallery, San Diego, CA, November, 2022
. What the FCK, UMA Gallery, Oakland, CA, November, 2022
. Off the Grid: Contemporary Fiber Art, Barn Gallery, Woodland, CA, November 2022
. Meta Boost, Urban Hive, Sacramento, CA, October 2022
. Spooked, UMA Gallery, Oakland, CA, October, 2022
. Art Class, ARTHOUSE Gallery, Sacramento, CA, September 2022
. Textured, WAL Public Market Gallery, Sacramento, CA, September 2022
· Made in California, Brea Gallery, Brea CA, April 2022
. Left Coast Annual, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA, April 2021
· Activate! v.2.0 , Begovich Gallery, Fullerton, CA, April 2020
· MFA x BFA, Freedman Gallery, California State University, Fullerton CA, April 2019
· Galentine’s Day, Broad Room, February 2019
· Sac Open Studios, Sacramento CA, August 2018
. 1810 Gallery, Sacramento CA, April - May 2018
· WAL (Warehouse Artist Lofts) Studio Show, Sacramento CA, May 2018
· BNSA (Big Names, Small Art), Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento CA, May 2017
Installation
. Welcome Chain, The Sunshine Prophecy, Oakland, CA, July 2026
. Jest Fest Music Festival, “9 of Pentacles”, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA, April, 2023
. Maker’s Mart, Scottish Rite Center, Sacramento, CA, December 2022
· The Living Room, Second Saturday Art Walk, Blue Line Arts, Roseville CA, July 2021
· The Meditation Tent, First Festival, Music Festival, Sacramento CA, May 2018
Publications
· L.A. Photo Curator - In the City - Juliet Haas, Exhibition #5, Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2022
· Articulator, Published with Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento CA, Fall 2021
· Tube. Magazine, Sacramento, CA, Summer 2021
· Tube. Magazine, Sacramento, CA, Summer 2020
· Chapped Anthology, Bassethound Press, Sacramento, CA, 2019
· Chapped Literary Magazine, Spring 2017, Summer 2017, Fall 2017 , Spring 2019
· Tube. Magazine, Cover and spread, Sacramento, CA, Winter 2018
Artist Statement
Pénélope Lenaerts is a multi-media artist focusing on soft sculpture and its intersections. She combines organic playful forms with small details such as interwoven fingers, folded layers and beading to reference a body in space. With a background in painting and apparel construction, she blends visual language with sewing to create narratives about the human experience- familiar and inviting forms from a mysterious dreamscape. Her smaller beaded works reference an esoteric religion and ritual that neither exists in our world nor is foreign to us. The art of impermanent craft and surface decoration, such as sewing, beading, and embroidery, is an unapologetically collective female space that is crucial to her voice. In her practice, she repeats forms, themes, and symbols to craft her own visual language with which she tells stories about memories and the pleasure of touch. Pénélope draws inspiration from artists including Louise Bourgeois and Hilma af Klimt, as well as poetry and classical English literature.
After earning her MFA in 2021 and spending time on her practice in the San Francisco Bay, Pénélope Lenaerts moved to Occidental, CA, where she presently lives and works. She enjoys blending visual themes from the Northern California redwood forest, and traditional women’s crafting in her work, often following simple narratives of the pleasure of being softly entangled with a lover.
Pénélope Lenaerts
