Shayna Strype is an artist working in animation, film, and puppetry performance. Rooted in analog processes, humor, and tactile craft, her work explores humanity through nonhuman perspectives, including objects, animals, and elements of the natural world. Her films have screened at festivals and venues including Slamdance, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest, and Anthology Film Archives, and have received awards at Brooklyn Film Festival, Thomas Edison Film Festival, and Athens International Film + Video Festival, among others. Her work has been supported by The Jim Henson Foundation, Handmade Puppet Dreams, Mono No Aware Cinema Arts Non-Profit, Dixon Place Theater, Mass MoCA's Assets for Artists, and the SVA Art Practice residency. She has an M.F.A. in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College.
While at MacDowell, Strype developed sculptural prototypes for her upcoming exhibition at The Boiler in Brooklyn, New York, opening in October 2026. The work incorporates projected hand-drawn animation, sculptural elements, and practical effects within a multimedia installation. She also collaborated with interdisciplinary artist Annie Saunders to create The Starting Point, a stop-motion animation conceived and completed at MacDowell. Strype has received a commission from Mono No Aware to create Transitional Object, a 16mm stop-motion film, which screened internationally, including at Slamdance, Hiroshima Animation Season, and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.
