Artist Talk: Molly Vaughan

Since 2012, Seattle artist Molly Vaughan has utilized her multi module approach to art-production to honor the lives of murdered transgender and gender non-conforming Americans with a series of works called Project 42. Through the creation of garments and diverse collaborative memorial actions, Vaughan raises awareness of the violence that transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, particularly trans women and trans femmes of color, face in contemporary American society with “42” referencing a symbolic average lifespan of someone in this community.

Vaughan’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 2024, she represented the state of Washington at the National Museum of Women in the Arts as part of their international triennial series Women to Watch. Her performance work Over, Under, Over: Intertwined Experiences in a Transgender Age was hosted at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg in 2015. Her Lecture on Project 42 and how the effects of continuing this work during an unprecedented time of anti-trans legislation marks her return to the MFA.

Free for MFA Members; $15 for Not-Yet-Members (Youth 17 and under are Free!)
Program ticket includes Art After Dark admission from 5:00 PM–8:00 PM