Jenifer K. Wofford is an American contemporary artist and art educator based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. Known for her contributions to Filipino-American visual art, Wofford's work often addresses hybridity, authenticity and global culture, frequently from an ironic, humorous perspective. Wofford collaborates with artists Reanne Estrada and Eliza Barrios as the artist group Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. She was also the curator of Galleon Trade, an international art exchange among California, Mexico and the Philippines.

Background

Wofford was born in San Francisco, and raised in Hong Kong, Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur. Her family returned to California when she was a teenager. Wofford has lived and worked in San Francisco for much of her professional career. While receiving her BFA degree from the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

, Wofford studied with

Carlos Villa Carlos Villa (December 11, 1936 – March 23, 2013) was a Filipino-Filipino American, American visual artist, curator and faculty member in the Painting Department at the San Francisco Art Institute. His work often explored the meaning of cu ...

, whose ''Worlds In Collision'' project was of significant influence on her development as an artist and educator. While completing her MFA degree at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, Wofford worked with Catherine Ceniza Choy, whose book ''Empire of Care'' influenced the creation of Wofford's Filipina nurse- related art projects. This led to a large body of work featuring Filipina caregivers featured in a 2020 article in ''Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory''.

Art

Wofford's visual art, performance art and curatorial projects have been presented in the United States, the Philippines, Malaysia, Turkey and Hong Kong. She has also been awarded artist-in-residence stays in France, the Philippines, Italy, Denmark and Norway. Wofford received
2025 San Francisco Bay Area Artadia Award
from

Artadia Artadia is an American arts non-profit organization founded in 1999. It is headquartered in New York City, and support visual artists with unrestricted, merit-based financial awards as well as other opportunities. History Artadia was founded in ...

and a 2017 Painters and Sculptors Grant from the

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

. Wofford's multidisciplinary project "''Klub Rupturre!!''" focused on Northern California's

Loma Prieta Loma Prieta (from Spanish ''loma'' -hill, ''prieta'' -dark) is the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California, measuring in height. Although the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was named for this mountain, the actual epicent ...

earthquake and other cultural events from the year 1989 was presented at Black & White Projects in San Francisco in 2019. Variations on ''Klub Rupturre!!'' were subsequently presented at The Great Highway Gallery in San Francisco in 2021 and at Silverlens Gallery in Manila in 2022. Wofford's 2020 mural, "''Pattern Recognition,''" celebrating Asian and Asian American art, was displayed on the Asian Art Museum's Lui Hyde Street Art Wall in

from 2020 to 2023. Her mural was vandalized in 2021. A full-scale replica of "''Pattern Recognition''" was printed and presented on the exterior of the

Asia Society The Asia Society is a 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States (Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and around the world (Hong Ko ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

in 2022. Wofford's work was featured in ''Alon: Journal of Filipinx American Diaspora Studies'' in 2023. Wofford's 2023 solo exhibition "''Comfort Room''" at Stanford University's Coulter Art Gallery addressed grief and solace. A version of "''Comfort Room''" was presented by Silverlens Gallery at the 2024 Frieze Art Fair in Los Angeles. Wofford's

SFMOMA The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art, and has b ...

mural, "VMD," inspired by Filipina American Olympic champion Victoria Manalo Draves, went on display in the museum in October 2024.

Awards

* 2025 San Francisco Bay Area Artadia Awardee,

, national organization * 2023 YBCA 100 2023 Honoree,

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary Contemporary art, contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that cel ...

, San Francisco, CA * 2022-24 Lucas Arts Residency Program Fellow,

Montalvo Arts Center The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. Open to the public, Montalvo comprises a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterran ...

, Saratoga, CA * 2021 Meta Open Arts installation commission, Facebook, San Francisco, CA * 2021 Artist Grant,

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cal ...

, San Francisco, CA * 2020 Artist Grant, Balay Kreative, San Francisco, CA * 2019 Individual Artist Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA * 2017 Painters and Sculptors Grant,

, New York, NY * 2017 Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review Selection, Washington, DC * 2016 Print Public Residency Program Fellowship,

Kala Art Institute Kala Art Institute is a community arts non-profit organization, artist residency, art classes, and an art gallery, founded in 1974, and located in two locations in Berkeley, California. About They offer facilities for printmaking, photography, a ...

, Berkeley, CA * 2012 Investing In Artists Grant, Center for Cultural Innovation, Los Angeles/San Francisco, CA * 2011 Artist in Residence, Kino Kino, Sandnes, Norway * 2010 Bogliasco Fellowship, Liguria Study Center, Bogliasco, Italy * 2009 Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA * 2007 Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery Award for Visual Art, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco, CA * 2007 Art Matters Grant, Art Matters Foundation, New York, NY * 2006 Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fellowship, The San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA

Significant projects

*Galleon Trade (2007–08): international curatorial project in San Francisco and Metro Manila * Flor 1973-78 (2008): public art project in San Francisco * Manananggoogle (2013–2020): *as Mail Order Brides/M.O.B. installation and performance at San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, Southern Exposure and SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco * Earthquake Weather (2014): web project and installation * Collapse (2015): painting series at Silverlens Galleries, Makati *Limning the Liminal (2019): exhibition of drawings, paintings, prints and artists books at University of San Francisco’s Thacher Gallery *Klub Rupturre!! (2019): installation, performance, video and paintings presented at Black and White Projects, San Francisco *Pattern Recognition (2020): mural outside the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco *Jiayou!! (2021): artwork displayed in collaboration with artist Christy Chan's project "Dear America" *Fire Season (2021): artwork presented at Berkeley Art Center and Asian Art Museum *Comfort Room (2023): exhibition at Stanford University's Coulter Art Gallery and Silverlens booth at Frieze LA *VMD (2024): Mural inspired by Victoria Manalo Draves at SFMOMA

Teaching

Wofford has taught Fine Arts and Philippine Studies courses at the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

since 2007. She has also taught and/or advised students at

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

Diablo Valley College Diablo Valley College (DVC) is a public community college with campuses in Pleasant Hill and San Ramon in Contra Costa County, California. DVC is one of three public community colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District (along with ...

and

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level college affiliated with California Institute of the Arts. It offers Master's degrees in a low-residency format. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award wi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wofford, Jenifer K American performance artists American contemporary artists Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Art Institute alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American artist groups and collectives American people of Filipino descent American women artists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American artists of Asian descent 21st-century American women 21st-century Filipino women educators 21st-century Filipino educators American art educators Filipino art educators American women art educators Filipino women art educators Filipino women artists American artists of Filipino descent in California