Saya Woolfalk's largest survey exhibition, 'Empathic Universe,' has opened at New York's Museum of Arts and Design. The show introduces visitors to the Empathics, a fictional plant-human hybrid species that embodies profound understanding and interconnection. Organized by curator Alexandra Schwartz, the exhibition spans two decades of Woolfalk's career and includes video, sculpture, installation, works on paper, and artist-fashioned clothing. It explores themes of empathy, hybridity, and utopia, drawing on Afrofuturist thinkers and science fiction, while addressing issues of racism and sexism in a polarized world.
The exhibition matters because it arrives at a moment when empathy has become a contested and even 'weaponized' concept in contemporary culture. Woolfalk's work offers a rare, tender, and humorous vision of a kinder world, evoking the sacred through art. As an artist of color who began her career when few such voices were represented in mainstream art media, her survey demonstrates how personal narrative and community stories can be integrated into broader art-world conversations. The show positions Woolfalk as a world-builder alongside artists like Trenton Doyle Hancock and Takashi Murakami, making a significant contribution to discussions about identity, connection, and social transformation.