Booking and details
Plan your visitDates Fri, Feb 20, 2026 – Sun, April, 5, 2026
Venue Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall
Tickets Free; timed-entry pass recommended
Self-dubbed a “cultural scrapper,” Mandy Cano Villalobos harnesses the leftover materials of home, belonging, and cultural identity. Using everything from broken jewelry and orphaned toys to stained clothing, her mixed-media textiles take inspiration from the luxurious designs of embroidered bindings in the Folger collection and re-create them with the relics of modern capitalist excess. Cano Villalobos uses this juxtaposition to draw attention to the lasting legacies of injustice and environmental damage that are a consequence of early modern colonization and empire building.
About Contemporary Art at the Folger
Each year, the Folger Shakespeare Library awards fellowships to artists whose creative work is grounded in research on the stories, art, and objects in our collection. From October 2025 to April 2026, the Folger will feature boutique-style solo shows highlighting selected works by artist fellows from across the country. The series will conclude with a final exhibition at Transformer DC, in the Logan Circle neighborhood.
Mandy Cano Villalobos
Mandy Cano Villalobos is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans installation, 2D, performance, and sculpture. Her projects explore ideas of home, belonging and cultural identity. Self-dubbed a “cultural scrapper”, the artist harnesses material memories of domestic objects – broken jewelry, orphaned toys, stained clothing, etc. – to craft opulent works steeped in human touch. Each project spawns from a union of religious pageantry and capitalist glut, flaunting a false abundance that eludes our desires for true satisfaction.
Cano Villalobos exhibits internationally and has received multiple awards and grants from organizations including the Gottlieb, Puffin, and Chenven Foundations, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, ArtNews, The Washington Post, Sculpture Magazine, Hyperallergic, and The Chicago Reader, among others. She currently maintains studios in Grand Rapids, MI and Brooklyn, NY.
About Folger Institute
The Folger Institute is a center for early modern research at the Folger Shakespeare Library that brings public audiences together with researchers to explore the cultures and legacies of the early modern world. Learn more.
