Shelby Donnelly

Biography 

Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist, educator, and business owner who lives and works in Philadelphia. She makes collages that are screenprinted and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized in videos, performances and installations. Her work stages dramas that come from observing humanity’s relationship with ritual, ceremony and spirituality and how that plays out in everyday existence and the subconscious. Incorporating fragments from cultural sources (film, novels, news) and materials (fabric, paper), her collages are a visual response or a way of “materializing gestures”—making physical what is typically an action.

In 2019, Donnelly founded Wear to Wall, a clothing brand that combines her interest in textiles and materials into one-of-a kind and limited edition art to wear.

Donnelly has exhibited both internationally and nationally at International House Philadelphia’s Ibrahim Theater, The Fabric Workshop and Museum and The Barnes Foundation, all in Philadelphia, as well as at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Haus der Kunst Museum in Munnich, Germany. Donnelly was the 2014 recipient of the Independence Foundation Artist Fellowship and traveled to Morocco to co-curate an exhibition at TALIM (Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies). She attended artist residencies at the Cité de Internationale in Paris; Millay Arts, Austerlitz, New York; Soaring Gardens Artist Retreat, Laceyville, Pennsylvania; and Second State Press in Philadelphia. Donnelly holds a BFA in Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University, St. Louis (2002), and a MFA in Material Studies from Tyler School of Art, Temple University (2008), Philadelphia.

Experience

• From 2014 to the present, Donnelly has served as an assistant adjunct professor at University of the Arts. Throughout that time, she has taught Fabric Printing, Fabric Resist and Embellishment, Intro to Fibers, Junior Projects, Junior Studio, Materials and Process Seminar, and Senior Thesis. 

• Donnelly is also an adjunct professor, teaching Visual Fundamentals, at Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey.

• From 2020 to 2021, she was an adjunct professor at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, where she taught Surface in Art and Design. 

• From 2018 to 2019, Donnelly taught Intro to Fashion, Color and Media as an adjunct instructor at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. 

• Her other teaching roles have included

  • High school apprentice coordinator, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2009–2019);

  • Made Institute, Philadelphia (2019); 

  • Art Futures program, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2018–2019);

  • Art Futures Program, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2015);

  • Finding Home, Mural Arts, Philadelphia (2009); 

  • Onsite Studio Program, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2009–2012); and

  • Restorative Practices in Youth, Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia (2008–2009). 

• Donnelly’s other professional experience includes 

  • Owner and founder of Wear To Wall LLC (2019–present);

  • Museum education manager, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2009–2019);

  • Assistant muralist, The Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia (2009); and 

  • Program coordinator, The Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia (2008–2010).

Visit Shelby Donnnnelly’s website.

Visit weartowall.com.

Awards & Accolades

• Donnelly has been recognized myriad times throughout her career, through honors and awards including

  • Museum’s Connect Travel Grant to Morocco, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Rabat, MA (2014);

  • Independence Foundation Visual Artist Grant, Philadelphia (2014);

  • Cindy R. Ettinger Scholarship, Second State Press, Philadelphia (2011); and

  • Vision and Rationality Seminar Scholarship, Temple Rome (2007).

• Her solo exhibitions include 

  • Slow Grooming, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia (2018);

  • Letters, Adds Donna, Chicago (2017)

  • S.10:14. Live performance, Whitesbog Preservation Trust, Whitesbog, New Jersey (2016);

  • SITUATIONS, International House Philadelphia Ibrahim Theater, Philadelphia (2015); and 

  • Fabric Impressions/Metallic Dust, International House, Philadelphia (2013). 

• Other select exhibitions are 

  • Illume, Inliquid Art Gallery, Philadelphia (2021);

  • Urban Riders, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, France (2018);

  • Mohamed Bourouissa: Urban Riders, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (2017);

  • Horse Day, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands (2016);

  • Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia (2016);

  • We Pain, Lump Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina (2015);

  • Open Field, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia (2015); 

  • Mohammed Bourouissa, Haus Der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2014);

  • Etat de la Femme, Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris (2012);

  • Other Possible Titles, Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia (2011); 

  • Common Placing, Napoleon Gallery, Philadelphia (2011); and 

  • Fuzzy Logic, Des Lee Gallery, St Louis, Missouri (2012).

Without damage, there is no beautiful repair.