StARTers with Sheila Pepe

Visiting artist at the Siena Art Institute for the month of May, Sheila Pepe is an American artist and educator living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Morristown, NJ, in 1959, she is a prominent figure as a cross-disciplinary artist, whose work addresses feminist and class issues. Her most notable work is characterized as site-specific installations of web-like structure crocheted from domestic and industrial material, such as shoelaces, yarn, nautical towline, and giant rubber bands, although she works with sculpture and drawing as well.
Since 1994, Pepe has had numerous solo exhibitions at venues throughout the United States including: Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA; Rowland Contemporary, Chicago, IL; The Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, CA; Susan Inglett Gallery, New York; Thread Waxing Space, New York; University Gallery at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA; Visual Arts Center, Richmond, VA; Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; and Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, CT. In fall 2012, she took part in the project “ARTInRETI: Artistic Practices and Urban
Transformation in Piedmont” at Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italy.
During that time Pepe has also participated in many group exhibitions, including: Shared Women, (2007), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions; Subversive Lace and Radical Knitting, (2007), Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Decelerate, (2006), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City.
Her work is held in a number of private and public collections including: The Jersey City Museum, The Rose Art Museum, and The Harvard University Art Museums.
She is currently Assistant Chair Fine Arts at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.

Picture:
Sheila Pepe
Red Hook at Bedford Terrace, 2008
Nautical towline, shoelaces, yarn, hardware
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA