Penny Mateer: October 2025
Penny Mateer is an award-winning artist whose work has exhibited widely including, Weisman Art Museum, The Sculpture Center, Lawrence Art Center, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; and regionally at The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, and Contemporary Craft. She has received numerous awards from the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and won Best of Show, Fiberart International 2016. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Pittsburgh Public School system and The University of California, Irvine. Her public art experience includes co-director of Knit the Bridge, a community-made public fiberart installation on the Andy Warhol Bridge in Pittsburgh. She organizes Pole-2-Polls, a community-made public art project to promote voting. Mateer graduated with a M.S.W. from the University of Pittsburgh after receiving a B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.
My artwork is textile-based, drawn from generations of women before me who expressed themselves through stitching, often in resistance. I focus on social and political commentary to call out injustice and question authority. I find that there is something about the intimacy of cloth and recognition of the work required in the making that helps dissolve the distance between the viewer and the art. In my Protest series I examine what if anything we learned from the 1960’s, as conservative voices seek to turn back the hands of time.
All of my work starts with reading the newspaper, historically the watchdog of democracy. But as business interests and social media have increased control of news delivery with the emphasis on market share over journalistic integrity, democracy is at risk. As newspapers transitioned to the internet I began to think about photojournalism and whether its impact is diminished with the ongoing shift from holding the newspaper to viewing a screen. What stories are missed when
the eye isn’t drawn to an image while turning a page? On the internet you can click away from what you don’t want to see. Over time I’ve developed my own take on photojournalism by merging multiple lenses to create an alternative newspaper image.
After Donald Trump was elected in 2016 I launched a daily collage series from the NY Times, In Today's News. What began as a chronicle to bear witness and make sense of the unfolding chaos of DT’s presidency, became an historical document of an unprecedented time in our nation’s history. For economical large-scale printing and immediacy, I often reproduce my collages on commercially printed fabric or common objects to make difficult topics more accessible.
Current Exhibition:
Penny is currently exhibiting work at AAP in the exhibition But Wait, There’s More! through October 24, 2025. Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, 100 43rd St., Unit 107, Pittsburgh, PA 15201
Ongoing Projects:
DIY Political Art downloads available at www.pole2polls.com
