J. Morgan Puett

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 1985. 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, and more – rearranging these intersections by applying conceptual tools including research-based methods in history, biology, new economies, design, craft 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.
Puett has been awarded the John and Marva Warnock award 2014, the United States Artists Simon Fellow Award 2011, the Smithsonian Institution Artist Research Fellowship 2009, the Anonymous Was A Woman Award 2005, the PEI in Philadelphia 2005 amongst other grants.
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.