Worcester Art Museum to Present Solo Exhibition of Works by Kara Patrowicz, Winner of the Sally Bishop Prize at the 2025 ArtsWorcester Biennial

Worcester, MA—April 17, 2026—This summer, the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) will present Kara Patrowicz: The Sally Bishop Prize, a solo exhibition of work by the winner of the Sally Bishop Prize, the top honor at the 2025 ArtsWorcester Biennial. The exhibition will be on view August 1 through November 1, 2026, showcasing nearly 30 works by Central Massachusetts artist Kara Patrowicz. Kara Patrowicz: The Sally Bishop Prize is organized by Samantha Cataldo, the Museum’s Curator of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with ArtsWorcester.

Patrowicz creates depictions of family, motherhood, and everyday life in tapestries and felted work. Trained in oil painting, she takes a painterly approach to felting—a technique that blends fibers, typically sheep’s wool, into dense fabric or three-dimensional forms. The figurative scenes and household settings that make up the majority of her work are inspired by her experience as a mother of three young children, and explore the rhythms of caregiving within the early years of parenting. Vigil (Tilma) (2026), one of eight newly created works in the exhibition, incorporates found materials, including a baby swaddle, crib sheet, burp cloth, and washcloth. This large-scale, draping artwork references the religious imagery of The Virgin of Guadalupe, which can be seen at WAM in a painting by Miguel Cabrera (about 1755), on view in the Museum’s new American Art Galleries starting April 25.

“I want my fiber paintings to embody the ordinary, tender, invisible ways that the labor of caregiving can shape the world around us,” says Patrowicz. “Acts of care are often only discernible in the traces they leave. In repurposing my own ‘domestic detritus,’ I seek to honor the states of exhaustion, vulnerability, and yearning that can accompany mothering.”

Kara Patrowicz: The Sally Bishop Prize is the fifth collaborative exhibition between the Worcester Art Museum and ArtsWorcester. The organizations began their partnership in 2017 and have since held a solo exhibition every two years for the winner of the Biennial. The exhibitions provide winning artists with important museum credentials, while placing their work in conversation with world-renowned artists in the Museum’s collection.

“The Worcester Art Museum’s ongoing commitment to presenting local artists is made possible thanks to our longstanding partnership with ArtsWorcester,” says Matthias Waschek, the Museum’s Jean and Myles McDonough Director. “Kara Patrowicz’s remarkable work will join a series of major installations by regional artists which have transformed the Museum in recent years.”

“Kara’s evocative body of work is a testament to the strength of Worcester’s creative community,” says Juliet Feibel, Executive Director of ArtsWorcester. “We are proud to be continuing our work with the Worcester Art Museum to provide this rare opportunity for emerging artists in the region.”

On Saturday, August 1—the opening day of the exhibition—Patrowicz will present an Artist Talk delving into the inspiration and process behind her work. Talks are free for Worcester Art Museum Members ($5 for the general public).

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Above:

Kara Patrowicz, Vigil (Tilma), 2026, detail, felting with wool and mulberry silk, fabric applique, embroidery, fiber fill, crib sheet, burp cloth, washcloth, baby swaddle, 72×54 inches. © Kara Patrowicz