Artist-in-Residence

Moe Brooker

Moe Brooker working in the FWM studio.

Moe Brooker, who completed a residency at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in the mid-eighties, most recently debuted a new scarf multiple in the summer 2011 FWM exhibition, Close at Hand: Philadelphia Artists from the Permanent Collection. As Brooker described the development of his artistic practice, “For several years, I have been interested in a modified figure-ground relationship: the division of the picture plane into three fields of space, in which shape defined and organized the pictorial space. Overlaying both the field and the shapes were a series of calligraphic lines…Presently a change has begun to manifest in two ways: the image and the format. The image is now composed of overlapping patches of dense gesture, in a word, layers, and the format is now small and square.” 

Learn More

Unpacking our Stories, Episode 5: Moe Brooker
Explore the residency and work of the late Philadelphia painter and educator, Moe Brooker (1940–2022). First, hear from Philadelphia based Fiber Artist and former FWM Construction Technician, Betty Leacraft as she shares delightful stories and insights on Moe Brooker’s 1985 residency at FWM. Next, FWM Board Member, Architect and longtime friend, Emanuel Kelly shares two stories about working with Brooker on the Philadelphia Art Commission and a personal tribute to him as a family man. Together these testimonies shed light on a very important abstract painter of our time, Moe Brooker.

Artist Bio

Moe Brooker (American, 1940-2022)

Moe Brooker studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Tyler School of Fine Arts at Temple University (B.F.A.,1970; M.F.A., 1972). Brooker held faculty positions at such institutions including the Cleveland Institute of Art, Parsons School of Design (as chairman of the Foundation Department), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Moore College of Art and Design, where he was professor and chair of the Foundation Department from 1995 until his passing. Brooker has received many prestigious awards and recognitions, such as: Honored by The African American Museum in Philadelphia at the 35th Anniversary Celebration (2011); the Artist of the Year Award, the Governor’s Awards for the Arts, Governor Edward G. Rendell of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (2010); an Artists Equity Award (2010); a Medal of Achievement, The Philadelphia Art Alliance (2009); and the Van Der Zee Lifetime Achievement Award, Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, PA. His work is in such public or corporate collections as the Studio Museum in Harlem, Montgomery Museum of Art, the Musée des Beaux-arts de l’ Ontario, Xerox Corporation, General Motors, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.