On the occasion of the Graduation Party at Special Special, we are delighted to host our first interspecie exhibition, of a talented emerging outsider artist. Special Special presents The Artist Is NOT Present, the first solo exhibition by Wolfie (a rabbit) featuring the artist’s series of 13 recent portraiture artworks from the catalog of Marina Abramović’s 2010 retrospective at Museum of Modern Art, The Artist is Present.

Wolfie has been an avid chewer since birth. She began this body of work, The Artist is NOT Present, when she found a copy of Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present sitting in her home left out by her roommate Panny, who had received the book as a gift but had not felt a personal connection with it. Out of a pile of other printed material, Wolfie was immediately drawn to the emotive portraits from the performance, which took place long before her birth. When Panny discovered Wolfie’s first finished piece, a portrait of Abramović, she was so impressed that she showed it to her colleague’s at Special Special, landing this emerging artist her first solo exhibition.

Wolfie’s whimsically crafted portraits evoke possibilities of art creation, beyond the conventions of the human-dominated global art scene. For Wolfie, her chewing process is an act of curation, indiscriminately selecting portraits from the catalog, and chewing between her chosen subjects until she reaches her optimal desired composition. Wolfie highlights the emotional visual nuances of Abramović and her participants, enhancing the vulnerable moments of the notable figures and the everyday visitors alike. Reflective of art movements including Dadaism, Minimalist, Conceptualism, and Arte Povera, Wolfie’s works retain a distinctive quality achieved through a rabbit’s peculiar creative process. This one of a kind series of Wolfie’s artworks reveal an artistic yet naturalistic sensitivity that provokes critical examination of an interspecies kinship. Through the presentation of her artwork, Wolfie hopes to inspire other animals to tap into their intuition and share their unique perspectives on artmaking. 

Wolfie, born June 3, 2020, New Jersey (at age 2, she is 27 in Rabbit years) is a self taught artist. Wolfie has always been an avid chewer, spending her days roaming around chewing cardboard boxes, side boards, phone chargers, and anything she could get her teeth on. Her primary medium is paper and her process and tools are her teeth. She started creating her first serious body of work on February 11, 2022. Wolfie’s roommate is Special Special’s designer Panny Chayapumh.