Virginia Folkestad

An award winning fiber artist, Virginia completed her BFA with honors from Metropolitan State University Denver. Following graduation, she embarked upon a career as a sculptor specializing in installation art.  

Folkestad is a two-time recipient of the Artist Fellowship in Visual Arts Grant from the Colorado Council on the Arts and she was featured on the Art on TV video, Living Treasures of Colorado.

She was awarded residencies at the Dorland Art Colony in California, the Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, and was most recently a 3 year artist-in-residence at RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver

Folkestad's work is represented in the Denver Public Art collection by Current3, a light Installation on the Wynkoop Bridge, LoDo, Denver.  Her work is included in the Kaiser Permanente Collection and many private collections.

Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at ARC Gallery, Chicago; Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Denver;  Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities; ArtYard, Denver; OZ Architecture, Denver; Carson Gallery, Denver and Keller Project Space, Denver. 

Folkestad's work has been widely shown by invitation at numerous venues in Denver, the Denver Art Museum, Denver International Airport (DIA), Republic Plaza Building, University of Colorado, Museum of Outdoor Arts, Denver Center for Performing Arts, Metropolitan Center for Visual Arts (CVA) and locations throughout Colorado including Boulder, Pueblo, Glenwood Springs, Fort Collins, Golden.

Her work has also been shown nationally in Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas, Montana, Pennsylvania, Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico; Carmel and Monterey, California; Louisiana, Missouri, New York City and most recently at the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art.

In 2003 Folkestad was invited to exhibit in the Slovak Republic at the Andy Warhol Museum in Medzilaborce, the Sarisska Gallery, Presov and the Vychodoslovenska Gallery, Kosice, made possible by grants from U.S. Steel Corporation, the U.S. State Department and the Slovak Republic Ministry of Culture.

She is active in the Denver art community, recently completing service on the board of directors of the Denver Art Museum Contemporaries (DAMContemporaries) and on the Public Art Committee, Denver.

She is represented in Colorado by Sandra Phillips Gallery.