Over my career as an artist I have grappled with difficult topics. Through my sculptures and installations I navigate a fine line between art and craft. The work signifies emotions surrounding personal growth, perseverance and resilience. For years the balance of my life and art has hung heavy with trauma from the past. I’ve recently emerged into a place of lightness, ready to embody the joyful emotions bubbling up. In our time of extreme stress and anxiety I strive to harness the healing power of art and use it as a shield against the unease that persists. With my new work the scales are beginning to tip toward happiness; toward the present day instead of the past. For the first time in my adult life I understand what it truly is to be happy. 

As a fiber artist. I try to break from the prescriptive notions of traditional craft to create immersive experiences through my sculptural work. Textiles are my fundamental language and the forms I create are often body+emotional stand-ins of me and represent significant events from my life. Interpreting the past through my work helps me understand it more objectively.

A degree in theater design and a lengthy career as a scenic artist influence my process and provide a solid foundation for experimentation and exploration. I learned to be extremely flexible utilizing a broad range of materials and techniques. Trained in the illusion of theater, the sense of tension, suspension and wonder are constantly at play in my work.

I am energized by raising awareness and encouraging conversations about evocative topics. Presenting ideas publicly, often lends a voice to others, giving them courage to share their stories with me. Bearing the weight together unites us. As I reflect on my creative journey, I try to underscore the significance of embracing both the darkness and the light within oneself. Existing in a world of stress and anxiety I wish to harness the healing power of art by creating a joyful renewal of strength through my art to pass along to others. 

Minneapolis based artist, Marjorie Fedyszyn (she/her) addresses the universal experiences of loss and human vulnerability through her sculptural practice in textiles. Careful attention to process and the inherent properties of materials informs her creative vocabulary for this work, which simultaneously expresses ideas from broad environmental concern to personal grief and introspection. Using traditional craft techniques such as paper making, hand stitching, and felt making, Fedyszyn’s abstract forms and installations emerge as emotional histories that investigate ideas of control and the realms of the personal and the global.

Fedyszyn is a 2023 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellow and has been the recipient of a 2019 Jerome Visual Arts Fellowship and a Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grantee, as well as having received two Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative and Next Step Fund grants to support her work. She is a founding member of the MN Felt Makers Guild and the artist collective, SD8. Her work has been exhibited regionally and throughout the US, including The Robert C Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta GA; The Morgan Conservatory of Paper, Cleveland, OH; DeVos Museum, Marquette, MI and South Dakota Museum of Art, Brookings.Her studio practice is in the historic Casket Arts Building in NE Minneapolis.

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Selected Exhibitions

2024 – Decline and Fall, Redepenning Gallery,Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, MN

2024 – North of the 45th, DeVos Museum of Art, Marquette, MI

2024 – What Fierce Looks Like: Artist of the Women’s Art Institute, Form+Content Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2024 – New Terrain 12th National Juried Exhibition, Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, OH

2024 – Sustainability In Chaos, NAHP Exhibition, Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, Atlanta GA 

2024 – Open Work, McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship exhibition, Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2023 – Decline and Fall, Silverwood Park Gallery, St Anthony, MN

2022– When Trees Dream, South Dakota Art Museum, Brookings, SD

2022 – Thought/Process, Inez Greenberg Gallery, Artistry, Bloomington, MN 

2021 – 11th National Juried Exhibition, Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, OH

2020 – Materiality, North American Hand Papermakers digital exhibition

2020 – Drawn To Paper, Atlantic Gallery, New York, NY

2019 – MCAD-Jerome Fellowship Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN 

2019 – Fiber Arts International IX, Sebastopol Arts Center, Sebastopol, CA

 2018 – Irreproachable, Redepenning Gallery, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, MN

2017 – Wintertide, NEMAA Biennial, Public Functionary Gallery, Minneapolis, MN,

2016 – Women’s Art Institute Group Exhibition, University of MN Quarter Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

2015 – Recollection: Shadow to Matter, SD8 Group Exhibition, MCAD, Minneapolis, MN

2014 – 60th Arrowhead Biennial, Duluth Art Institute Duluth, MN

2014 – Material Matters, Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, Wi  

2013 – Elemental Matter, Jerome Fiber Artist Project Group Exhibition, Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2013 – Fantastic Fibers, Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY

Grants/Awards/Acquisitions

2025 –Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individual Grant

2024 – Scholarship to attend Anderson Ranch

2024 – Next Step Fund Grant, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council 

2023 – McKnight Fiber Artist Fellowship

2020 – Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant

2019 – MCAD/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Early Career Artists

2019 – Metropolitan Library Service Agency/Anoka County Library acquisition 

 2018 – Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant

2018 – Next Step Fund Grant, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council

2013 – Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grant recipient, Textile Center of MN

Professional Activity

2024 – North America Handmade Papermakers Conference: New Altitudes, Denver CO

2023 – North America Handmade Papermakers Conference: Paper Tides, Providence, RI

2022 – Grand Marais Art Colony artist residency

2022 – Yarn/Rope/String, Fiber Art Now magazine July 2022 

2022 – Sculptural Basketry Plus, Studio assistant to Ann B. Coddington, Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC

2020-2023 – Casket Arts Steering Committee chair

2019 – The Meditative Ritual of Art Making, Susan Schaefer, SW Journal

2019 – Aroha Philanthropies Scholarship for teacher training in Vitality Arts for older adults 

2017 – The Power of Local Groups: SD8, Surface Design Association Journal; The Power of 8, SDA Conference 

2016- 2024 – Fiber Arts Youth Guild Instructor, Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN

2013 – Founded MN Felt Makers’ Guild

2010-2012 – Textile Center Mentor Protégé program, Carolyn Halliday, Mentor

1986-1999 – Freelance scenic/prop artisan; Guthrie Theater, MN Opera, Science Museum of MN and Dayton’s Department Store

1981-1986 – Freelance design assistant/prop artisan for N.Y. City Opera, Spoleto Festival, The Roundabout Theater, Manhattan Theater Club and The Hudson Guild Theater

Community Projects

2021 – Resemblance, a self identity workshop for older adults, Jones-Harrison assisted living residence

 2018 – Meditative Stitching in the Gallery, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, MN

2014-2022 – “Let’s Make” American Craft Council Show, project manager representing Textile Center, St. Paul, MN 

2015 – Felt Making Fun in the Garden, Walker Art Center with Textile Center

2014 – What’s Growing Here? C4-Central Corridor Light Rail Transit Green Line Community felting project

Education/Selected Workshops

2024 – Masterclass: The Engineer and Madam Bricolage Are Lovers, Sheila Pepe instructor, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO

2023 – Going Large With Paper Making, Lynn Sures Instructor, Penland School of Craft; Penland, NC

2023 – Natural Pigmented Papermaking, Hannah O’Hare Bennet, MN Center for Book Arts; Minneapolis, MN

2022 – Sculptural Basketry Plus, Ann B.Coddington instructor, Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC

2019 – Overbeaten Abaca Paper Residency, Jocelyn Châteauvert instructor; Charleston SC

2018 – Sumi Ink and Wearable Felt Workshop, Jorie Johnson instructor; Minneapolis, MN

2018 – Wearable Felted Sculpture, Marjolein Dallinga instructor; Minneapolis, MN

2017 – Tied, Twisted and Knotted, Tanya Aguiñiga, instructor; Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, ME

2016 – Women’s Art Institute at St. Catherine University, Pat Olson, Elizabeth Erickson and AK Garski instructors; St Paul, MN

2011 – Slow Felt Movement – SDA Conference, Chad Alice Hagen instructor; St Paul, MN

1982 –  B.A. in Theater Design, State University of New York – Fredonia, Fredonia, NY