about piper
Born and raised in Ventura County, California, Piper Snowber is a Senior attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a Distinguished Scholars Scholarship. Piper is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the complexities and interrelatedness of social, political, and ecological issues through personal narrative, research, and collaboration. Their ultimate goal is to enrich the soil, both literally and figuratively, through cultivating kinship with land, people, and more-than-human species. Piper has exhibited work at Banaras Cultural Foundation in Varanasi, India, Watershed Art and Ecology in Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Ventura County, and Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, California. They have been involved with various environmental justice organizations, including the Pesticide Free Soil Project and CFROG, as well as community gardens and small-scale, BIPOC-led farms. Piper loves to learn, and they love to love. They journal every night, enjoy riding their bike, and they frequently visit bodies of water.
contact
piper.snowber@gmail.com
statement
My work dwells in the interstitial space between land and body – where social, historical, and political currents flow, where time is palimpsestic, and space is porous. I situate my practice amongst the geologic continuum, within the waterways that carry dye runoff, beneath the hooves of sheep whose wool I weave. In this space, I consider the multiplicity of ways I fold into the gradual churn of time and sediment.
I allow soil to speak where memory slips. I push against reductionist epistemologies by building intimate relationships with materials and practices. I make art because the poppies know when to open and close, because I believe the sun decides to rise every morning. I make art because I want to know where you hurt, and where I hurt, and I want to remember what we’ve forgotten. I make art because I want to find a way we can make it to the end of time, together.
My work does not seek to exist in ownership or perpetuity – it is most concerned with operating within a network connected to, and reciprocal of, all of the life that surrounds it: what has come before and what is continuously unfolding.
CV
Piper Jane Wallace Snowber
Born 2005, Camarillo, California
Lives and studies in Chicago, Illinois
Education
2023-December 2026 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA expected
Exhibition
2023 Rio Mesa High School Annual IB HL Art Exhibit
2023 Alzheimer’s Association of Ventura County display
2024 Museum of Ventura County Scholarship Award Exhibition
2024 Edge on the Square San Francisco, Temari Exhibition
2024 School of the Art Institute ArtBash juried exhibition
2025 Studio Channel Islands Art Center “Emergence” juried exhibition
2025 Studio Channel Islands Art Center “Trans/formed” exhibition
2025 Watershed Art and Ecology “Under the Sun, As It Were” Curated by Evan Fusco
2025 PxM Group Exhibition, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with Jasper Goodrich
2026 Kriti Gallery and Banaras Cultural Foundation Residency, Varanasi, India
Publication
2020 ThreeFaced Zine
2020 Writopia Covid-19 Poetry Anthology
2024 Spring Skrew Magazine
2024 Fall Skrew Magazine
2025 Studio Channel Islands Art Center “Emergence” Poetry Anthology
2025 Before/After Image Publication, from Decolonizing Time Travel with Joshua Rios
Awards
2022 Elks Lodge Most Valuable Student Scholarship
2023 Loma Vista 4-H Program Scholarship
2023 School of the Art Institute of Chicago Distinguished Scholars Scholarship
2023 International Baccalaureate Diploma Recipient
2023 California State Seal of Civic Engagement
2023 California State Seal of Biliteracy
2023 Museum of Ventura County Bonita C. McFarland Scholarship
2025 Museum of Ventura County Scholarship
Professional Experience
2020 Wildbird Woodworks, Studio Apprentice
2021-2024 ETRNL Upcycled Clothing, Founder and Designer
2021-2023 Pesticide-Free Soil Project, Intern and Organizer
2023 Climate First: Replacing Oil and Gas, Community Outreach Intern
2024 Studio Channel Islands Art Center, Intern and Camp Counselor
2024-2025 SAIC Trans Artist Coalition Co-Leader
2025 Embroidery Specialist at Lola and the Boys, Chicago
2025-Present: Teacher’s Assistant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Contemporary Practices, Adult Continuing Education, Pre-College Program, and Multi-Arts Camp for children ages 8-9.
Collaborative Projects
2025 Rewired 2.0 with Endeavor Health, Chicago
2025 Quilt Church Fall Cohort, Chicago
2025 Entanglements - Collaborative installation and meal (see entangled meal)