Violet Handforth is a New York City-based writer, artist, and researcher in the Philosophy of Religion. Handforth’s work focuses on the relationship of Religion and Art, a practical mysticism.

To Contact please email: violethandforth@gmail.com

Instagram: @die_let

RESUME

EDUCATION

The New School for Social Research, The New School, New York, NY Liberal Studies MA

Completed a Master’s degree in the Philosophy of Religion with MA thesis advisor Dr. Simon Critchley. 

Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, New York, NY Self Designed Major BA

Self designed major entitled "Art Practice as Mysticism" combined the disciplines of Philosophy, Religion, and Art. Minored in Religious Studies. Senior thesis paper, “The Parable of the Lord and the Servant”, on the philosophical implications of writings by the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich. 

EXHIBITIONS

2026 

“MALDIMARE” Group Show, Filicudi, Sicily. Curated by Rossella Farinotti & Maurizio Cattelan.

”Séance for the Underground” Group Show, SVA Curatorial Practice, NYC. Curated by Sam Kim.

2025

“Triple Warmer” Group Show, Shoot the Lobster, NYC. Curated by Violet Handforth. 

“Schooner” Group Show, Aruga Fine Arts, Miami, FL. Curated by Karla Zurita. 

“I Heart Radio” L.E.D. Billboard for the Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL. OBM Project, Curated by Diana Nawi. 

Performance on the occasion of “Schlangensonne” for “Borrowed Sceneries”, Düsseldorf. Curated by Stephanie Seidel.  Video link.

“Solar Solar” Group Show, Shoot the Lobster, Glasgow. Curated by Honey Webster & Violet Handforth. 

"Miniotics” Group Show, Popgun Art. Chicago & NYC. Curated by Karla Zurita, Gunner Dongieux, & Trinity Bavaria. 

LITERATURE

2026

Illustrations for Kirsty Bell's forthcoming novel Mother's Mother, Fitzcarraldo Editions, London. 

Interview with Ebony L. Haynes, Editor, The Shoot the Lobster Quarterly. 

Exhibition text, Kosuke Kawahara, “Without Innocence”. RAINRAIN Gallery. New York, NY. 

“The Art World’s Kali Yuga”, Preface for Bettina Funcke’s forthcoming novel New York City Brocades, No Place Press, MA.

“The Lamplighters”, Catalogue Essay, Kai Althoff, Studio Casoli. Filicudi, Sicily. 

2025

Editor, The Sandwich Book, Shoot the Lobster.

Contributor, Popgun Art Gallery Zine Issue 2

Interview with Mark Leckey, “Meeting a Labubu” Comic, Superstars Only Magazine Issue 6. 

2024

“Five Nights in Paris” Comic, Superstars Only Magazine Issue 5. 

2023

“Touch Point” on “Cela Nous Concerne Tous” choreographed by Miguel Gutierrez, Superstars Only Magazine Issue 4. 

Exhibition Text, Ich-Maschine group show, BQ Berlin, Germany. 

2022 

Interview with Lizzi Bougatsos for her 2023 TRAMPS show, Superstars Only Magazine Issue 3. 

PANELS & LECTURES 

2026 

Presentation with Dara Friedman & Bettina Funcke on “The Black Heart”, American Academy in Rome Salone. Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY. 

2025 

Artists and Mothers Discussion with Dara Friedman & Julia Trotta, Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami, FL. 

SKY WOMAN WOMEN Film Screening & Roundtable Discussion 

  • VASSAR College

  • The New School

  • University at Buffalo, Department of Indigenous Studies

  • Haudenosaunee & Indigenous Matrilineality Symposium hosted by Rematriation & Syracuse University, Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice

 Lecturer, “Sky Woman as Oral Tradition and Moral Theory”, A Mnemonic Turn and the Future of Democratic Politics: International Conference. The Memory Studies Network (MSN) of the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) at The New School for Social Research in partnership with the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS).

Lecturer, “Sky Woman, The Haudenosaunee Creation Story: Oral Tradition as Embodied Spirituality”Sociologies, in Plural: Sociology Graduate Conference, New School for Social Research

2024

Lecturer, “Substance as Method: The Anchoress' Cell”, Anthropology Graduate Conference: Transcendence, New School for Social Research 

Lecturer, “The Mystic Eclipse”, Dr. Fielve Tlaloc Palmer’s Religion and Culture course, University of Pittsburgh 

2023

Lecturer, “Sky Woman as Creation Story and Indigenous Philosophy”, Dr. Mark Larrimore’s After Religion course, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts 

Organization & Discussion, Dr. Joe Stahlman, Remembering Peace: Scholarship as a Middle Road, New School for Social Research

2019

Speaker, Natural Sciences and Religion Panel, On the occasion of the screening of “Symbiotic Earth”, on the work of evolutionary theorist and biologist Lynn Marguilis, The New School.  

READINGS

2026 State of Exception, The Gallery, 1000 Dean St, BK 

2025 On Cue | 就绪 A Performative Exhibition by Stilllife, 1 Kenmare Street, New York, NY. Performed a reading of my writing, “Jesus Christ Modern”. 

EMPLOYMENT 

TRAMPS‍ ‍ (2018-present)

Gallery Assistant

Past locations at 75 East Broadway in Chinatown and 39 1/2 Washington Square South, NYC. Current locations at 15f Micawber Street & McGlynn’s Free House, London and Passage du Caire, 33 Rue d’Alexandrie, Paris.

Studio Casoli (2025-present)

Gallery Assistant

Filicudi, Sicily. 

Martos Gallery, (2025-present)

New York, NY.

Sales Assistant, Art Basel Miami & Hong Kong Booths

Artist Assistant, Lizzi Bougatsos 

(2021-present)

Artist Assistant, Dara Friedman

(2023-present)

Teaching Assistant, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School (2024-2026)

  • Professor Mark Larrimore’s After Religion (2024)

  • Professor Caveh Zahedi’s Directors on Directing: Contemporary Independent Cinema (2024, 2025)

  • Professor McKenzie Wark’s Intro to Cultural Studies (2025, 2026)

  • Professor Christopher Nazzaro’s Post-Human Nuclear Experience (2025)

Research Assistant, The New School for Social Research (2019-2026)

  • Dr. McKenzie Wark (2026)

  • Dr. Paul Kottman (2022-2024)

  • Dr. Mark Larrimore (2019-2020)

Library Assistant, The New School

(2022-2024)

BARTENDING

Cocktail Bar La Sirena, Filicudi 2025, 2026

TRAMPS Bar, La Pulce, Rome 2024 

TRAMPS Bar, Cafe Funzy, Paris 2023

GRANTS

2026, 2024 The New School for Social Research Student Research and Travel Fund

LANGUAGE SKILLS

I am bi-lingual English and German and fluent in French. Adequate in Spanish and Italian.