Three Striped Gunslingers, created by 2023 Guttenberg Arts S.T.A.R. Alum Shoshanna Weinberger, reclaims the gunslinger archetype, transforming a traditionally male-centric, machismo-driven figure into a celebration of hybridity, femininity, and agency. Referencing Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis, which glorified male celebrity, this work subverts that narrative by reimagining her recurring muse, Strangefruit, as the empowered gunslinger.

The figures, adorned with bold stripes and bearing “crooked teeth,” signify both defiance and vulnerability, embodying the complexities of identity. Stripes, historically associated with exclusion and otherness, are reclaimed as emblems of power, multiplicity, and hybridity. This reinterpretation explores resistance, cultural endurance, and intersectionality, carving space for voices historically excluded from such visual narratives. The artwork stands as a visual manifesto of empowerment, reframing the gunslinger as a triptych of resilience and reclamation.

This tote bag design, which features Three Striped Gunslingers, serves as the inaugural item in Weinberger’s new studio project, Goth Punk Hippie. Rooted in her personal persona, Goth Punk Hippie merges art and design to create merchandise that embodies her individuality and cultural voice. By transforming fine art into wearable and accessible pieces, Weinberger invites others to engage with her creative vision in both intimate and everyday ways.

 Born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in Montclair, NJ, Shoshanna Weinberger received her MFA from Yale School of Art (2003) and BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1995). Based in Newark, NJ, since 2006, Weinberger’s work explores her Caribbean-American heritage, viewing herself as a visual anthropologist documenting experiences through abstraction.

She has exhibited over two decades, highlight include the National Gallery of Jamaica, Newark Museum of Art, Bronx Museum, Wave Hill and NSU Art Museum. Her awards include: 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant; 2016 and 2022 NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowships; 2020 Newark Artist Accelerator Grant (Warhol Foundation); 2022-2023 Jamaica Arts Society Fellowship; 2023–2024 NJ Futures Fellowship; 2024 NJ Activation Grant (Culture Center of Power and Dodg Foundation); and received a 2024 City of Newark Creative Catalyst Grant. Residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center (2015), Project for Empty Space (2018), McColl Center (2022), and Guttenberg Arts (2023). Her work is in public collections that include: New Jersey State Museum; Newark Museum of Art; Margulies Collection- Miami; Sheldon Museum of Art-NE; Davidson College-NC; Bryn Mawr College-PA; Paul Robeson Galleries Collections, Rutgers-Newark; and LSU Museum of Art-Baton Rouge.