J. Morgan Puett was born in Hahira, Georgia in 1957. She received her BFA in painting and sculpture in 1981; then a MFA in sculpture and experimental filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984. Puett is a trans-disciplinary creative producer with accomplished work in the areas of installation art practices, clothing and furniture design, architecture, fine art, film, photography, and more – rearranging these intersections by applying conceptual tools including research-based methods in history, biology, new economies, design, textiles, and collaboration. Morgan’s early work forged new territory by intervening into the fashion system with a series of storefront installations and clothing/dwelling/event projects in Manhattan in the eighties and nineties, then produced a long series of research installations on the histories of the needle trade systems in museums around the world. These past and present works are innovations in the realm of new social engagement. Puett is the architect of The Mildred’s Lane* Project, which continues to forge new ground citing that being is profoundly a social and political practice. Curatorial projects include Mildred’s Lane Sessions, The Mildred Complex(ity)* project space, and A Guide to the Field* projects.

Puett has received several awards from; the Magdalena Abakanowicz Arts and Culture 2019, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2016, the the Pollock-Krasner Foundation 2016, the Brown Foundation Fellowship/Dora Maar, the John and Marva Warnock Foundation 2014, the United States Artists Simon Fellow 2011, the Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellowship 2009, the Anonymous Was A Woman Award 2005, the PEI in Philadelphia 2005.

Puett exhibits, lectures, and teaches extensively in venues that include MoMA, New York (2012-13); Musashimo Art University, Tokyo (2012); Contemporary Art Center, Tblisi, Republic of Georgia (2012); Creative Time, NYC (2011); Queens Museum of Art, NYC (2010); MoMA, NYC (2010); The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008); University of Venice, Italy (2005); American Fine Arts Co., NYC (2004); ARTEX, Arnheim, Netherlands (2004); WaveHill, Bronx, NYC; The Fabric Workshop and Museum of Philadelphia (2003-4); Mass MoCA, Ma. (2004); Spoleto, USA, Charleston, SC, (2002); The Serpentine Gallery & Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2001). Her work is in the Tate Modern in London, The Fabric Workshop and Museum of Philadelphia and in the Museum of Fine art, Philadelphia.

Puett currently is living with her son, Grey Rabbit Puett, (b. 2000,) working, learning, and teaching in Pennsylvania at Mildred’s Lane and The Mildred Complex(ity) that she founded and co-directs with Mark Dion.

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*Mildred's Lane is an art-site created by artists J. Morgan Puett and Mark Dion, deep in rural northeastern Pennsylvania bordering Narrowsburg, NY. Mildred's Lane is now a nonprofit corporation, cultural site hosting artists worldwide. Contact us to organize individual artists, group retreats, and residencies year-round. Visit www.mildredslane.com / Contact mildredslane@gmail.com

*The Mildred Complex(ity) is the project space located on Narrowsburg's Main Street where these multiplicities converge; working-living-making-researching exhibitions, programs, and events by artists of Mildred's Lane. These sites form an art complex(ity) questioning our impact as cultural producers in every aspect of life in the 21st-century.

*A Guide to the Field: Storefront practices in the Social realm is a transient project devoted to showing environmentally, socially and politically sensitive artwork and wares for the everyday. In a shared curatorial platform, artists working in the social sphere present and respond to topic-driven conversations that emerge as projects – in a game-like manner. Visit www.aguidetothefield.com / Contact field@aguidetothefield.com

News, Publications, and exhibitions

THe Labor Portraits of Mildred’s Lane in conversation with the Maslow Collection

The Maslow Collection Study Gallery / Marywood University / Scranton, Pennsylvania

Curator, Ryan Ward

october 20 through winter 2022

Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston

Mark Dion: The Misadventures of a 21st Century Naturalist

Mark Dion and J. Morgan Puett in collaboration, The Ladies’ Field Club of York 1999,

Survey Show. Curator, Ruth Erickson

September 2017 through January 1, 2018

PRESS

News:

We are so pleased to announce that J. Morgan Puett is a recipient of The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award for 2016.

Recently, Puett is the recent recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award 2016 and the Brown Foundation Fellowship at Dora Maar House, Southern France 2016.

DV8 MAGAZINE

June 19th 2015

DOMESTIC BLISS

Mildred’s Lane is a home. It is also an artists’ retreat and an experiment in ethical living situated on 94 acres deep in the woods of rural northeastern Pennsylvania. But in the 1830s, it was a homestead with a tiny farmhouse, where Mildred Steffens was born around the turn of the last century. Out of nine siblings, she was the only one who remained on the land, farming it until she died at the age of 86. .....

FULL STORY

The Art Assignment is a weekly PBS Digital Studios production hosted by curator Sarah Green. We take you around the U.S. to meet working artists and solicit assignments from them that we can all complete. Check for new episodes every Thursday!

J. Morgan Puett: A Practice of Be(e)ing

NOTE: Link is only Viewed by request please contact us for access.