Qualeasha Wood: code_eden

Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum to Exhibit Qualeasha Wood’s Tapestries that Draw

on Social Media, Queer Culture, and Anti-Black Prejudice

Glassboro, NJ (October 14, 2025) — Internationally celebrated, Philadelphia-based textile artist
Qualeasha Wood will make her regional debut in a solo exhibition running November 10 to January
10 at Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum.
Wood’s work explores her identity as a queer Black woman and a digital native, as well as racial
stereotyping, social media, and internet culture. The Central Jersey native, who works and lives in
Philadelphia, was drawn to textiles after her grandmother covered her with “a jacquard blanket woven
with baby photos.”
Qualeasha Wood: code_eden invites viewers into the vivid, layered worlds and self-portraits that she
builds from digital culture. Through textiles, tuftings, and new video works (that consider glitches and
misinformation online), the 29-year-old artist transforms the language of technology into lush
landscapes. The exhibition presents her as a world-builder, crafting a meta-paradise that blurs the line
between the virtual and the human.
In Deus Ex Machina (What Was I Made For?) (pictured above), Wood explores ideas of divine
intervention and self-determination through imagery of fauna and the iconography of virtual and
religious sacraments. Wood’s tuftings, such as Into the Blue, visualize the journey of adolescence and
introspection through bold colors and pillowy textures.

The show is being guest curated by Leandra-Juliet Kelley, an art historian and curator based in Durham,
North Carolina.
Rowan’s Art Gallery & Museum in Glassboro, New Jersey, just outside Philadelphia, mounts new
contemporary art exhibitions by professional artists every two to three months. With a reputation for
attracting high caliber, international talent, it’s a cornerstone of South Jersey’s vibrant arts scene. All
exhibitions and special events are open to the public with free admission.
Local Artist With an International Reputation
“The artist’s tapestries, which incorporate distorted self-portraits and screenshots from the internet, feel
both ephemeral and nostalgic,” wrote The New York Times earlier this year.
Wood’s 2021 tapestry “The [Black] Madonna/Whore Complex” was acquired by the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. The Rhode Island School of Design graduate’s work is currently included in Design and
Disability at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as well as in the Philadelphia International
Airport’s Terminal E.
In 2024, she presented her first solo institutional exhibition, code_anima, at the Harvey B. Gantt Center
for African-American Art + Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2025, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in
London presented Malware, Wood’s second solo exhibition at the gallery.
Her work has also appeared at Art Institute of Chicago, The Rennie Collection, Vancouver, The Rhode
Island School of Design Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.
Later this year she will be a part of I Still Dream of Lost Vocabularies at Autograph in London.
How to Visit
Located at 301 High Street West, Glassboro, NJ 08028, Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum is open
to the public with free admission Monday to Friday 10:00 am – 5:00 pm and Saturday 11:00 am – 5:00
pm.
An Opening Reception on Saturday, November 15, 3-5 p.m. features a discussion with the artist and
guest curator.
Learn more.

PRESS PHOTOS (credits/captions enclosed)

About Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum
Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum offers contemporary art exhibitions featuring celebrated, high-caliber
visual artists from the global and local communities. Open to the public with free admission, it serves as a vibrant
cultural destination for South Jersey, the Rowan community, and surrounding region. The Art Gallery presents
diverse forms of contemporary art by professional artists with content that is thought provoking, relevant, and
timely. Visit: rowan.edu/artgallery

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