2022/23 MCAD–Jerome Fellowship Exhibition

Peng Wu is a social practice artist. Born and raised in China, he creates public art installations and participatory events to reflect on societal yet personal struggles, including immigration, sleep deprivation, and mental health issues. Wu has lived and worked in Minneapolis since 2011 as a temporary foreign worker—as defined by his visa status. His art of searching for a sense of home and rest is deeply informed by the decade-long impermanence. To earn a longer legal status of staying in this country he has to work day and night restlessly. At one point he couldn’t fall asleep at night. “How’s your sleep?” became the way he often greeted his immigrant friends. With no health insurance coverage, Wu couldn’t afford the insanely expensive hospitals here. He proposed to create an art project to cure his sleep disorder as his residency project at Weisman Art Museum. In collaboration with sleep researchers and doctors, he created large architectural installations to facilitate numerous public events to examine the cultures and politics of sleep. Wu was forced away from his home in Minnesota for two years due to visa issues. He returned to his long-gone home in Minneapolis last year and got married to his partner whom he couldn’t legally marry in their home country. Being together they sleep better now. On the dinner table of their home, he continues to host art making events that hopefully create a sense of home for all to sleep and rest.

Erika Terwilliger is a visual artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Terwilliger’s practice is driven through labor intensive techniques where understanding builds through repetition. Labor is only part of the process as the practice is most alive when the ephemeral materials she works with slump, drip, unravel, and crumble. The work exists across mediums, but the through-line is an interest in tactile intimacy, repeated failure, and the knowledge that failure builds. Terwilliger received a BA in Studio Arts from St. Olaf College in 2016 and an MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2020. During her time at the U of M she received fellowships to study textile and weaving practices in New York and Dundee Scotland. She has been selected for various residency programs at Second Shift Studios, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and Franconia Sculpture Park. Currently, Terwilliger is a lecturer in the University of Minnesota’s sculpture and ceramics department.