Sheila Pepe
Encyclopedia
Sheila Pepe is an artist and educator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She is a prominent figure as a lesbian, cross-disciplinary artist, whose work employs conceptualism, surrealism, and craft to address feminist and class issues. Her most notable work is characterized as site-specific installations of web-like structure crocheted from domestic and industrial material, although she works with sculpture and drawing as well. She has shown in museums and art galleries throughout the United States.
Education=
Pepe received her BA in 1981 at Alberta Magnus College in New Haven, CT, followed shortly by a BFA in ceramics at Massachusetts School of Art, Boston, in 1983. She studied blacksmithing at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, in 1984. In 1994 she received a fellowship to attend the Skowhegan school of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, completed her MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1995.
Life and Work=
While earning her BFA, she participated in the Boston feminist and lesbian communities, while working at the restaurant Beetle's Lunch. In 1983, she moved to rural Western Massachusetts and was involved with folk artists and feminist activists such as Diana Davies and Kady Van Duers. In 1985, she began working as a gallery guard at Smith College
Museum in Northhampton, MA. In 1986 she was awarded a position as the NEA
Curatorial Intern and continued working there as a preparer's assistant, under David Dempsey, until 1989.
Pepe made little work during the mid-1980s, but in 1988 while working with art at Smith College, she began to sew dolls, which were shown and sold in Northhampton. In 1992, she began her MFA work at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exploring video, performance, and sculpture comprising a highly feminist practice. During this time, an ongoing project called the "Doppelganger Series" was begun. This prompted her first solo show was at 88 Room in the Allston Mall
, Allston, MA in 1994. Work From the Doppelganger Series consisted of constructions or assemblages whose shadows cast on the wall serve as prompts for wall drawings. This process draws from the Surrealist automatic drawing exercise, exquisite corpse.
Pepe's break into the art world began with inclusion into a 1996 group exhibition of Boston Area Artists at Rose Art Museum
and in "Gothic: Transmutations of Horror in Late 20th Century Art" at the ICP in Boston in 1997. Her more recent work can be exemplified by her installation "Mind the Gap", 2005, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "Mind the Gap" was a site-specific sculptural work responding to the architecture of the gallery where shoelaces and nautical toe-line were intertwined and webbed throughout the space. This work instigated a dialogue between domestic and industrial materials and responded to a 1982 installation "Boa" by Judy Pfaff
in the same place.
She has won awards including the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Scholarship, 1998, and the Louise Comfort Tiffany Foundation award, 2001. She has taught art in many school throughout Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia since 1985. She currently holds an administrative position at Pratt Institute
in Brooklyn, NY, as the acting assistant dean of the school of fine arts. Her works are held in public collections including the Fogg Art Museum
of Harvard University and Goldman Sachs
, NYC.
Education=
Pepe received her BA in 1981 at Alberta Magnus College in New Haven, CT, followed shortly by a BFA in ceramics at Massachusetts School of Art, Boston, in 1983. She studied blacksmithing at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, in 1984. In 1994 she received a fellowship to attend the Skowhegan school of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine, completed her MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1995.
Life and Work=
While earning her BFA, she participated in the Boston feminist and lesbian communities, while working at the restaurant Beetle's Lunch. In 1983, she moved to rural Western Massachusetts and was involved with folk artists and feminist activists such as Diana Davies and Kady Van Duers. In 1985, she began working as a gallery guard at Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
Museum in Northhampton, MA. In 1986 she was awarded a position as the NEA
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Curatorial Intern and continued working there as a preparer's assistant, under David Dempsey, until 1989.
Pepe made little work during the mid-1980s, but in 1988 while working with art at Smith College, she began to sew dolls, which were shown and sold in Northhampton. In 1992, she began her MFA work at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, exploring video, performance, and sculpture comprising a highly feminist practice. During this time, an ongoing project called the "Doppelganger Series" was begun. This prompted her first solo show was at 88 Room in the Allston Mall
The Allston Mall
The Allston Mall was the provisional name for a space located on the second floor at 107 Brighton Avenue, Allston, Massachusetts, USA. Owned by Marsha Berman from approximately 1960 to 2005, it was home to countless examples of low rent alternative entrepreneurialism and cultural experimentation...
, Allston, MA in 1994. Work From the Doppelganger Series consisted of constructions or assemblages whose shadows cast on the wall serve as prompts for wall drawings. This process draws from the Surrealist automatic drawing exercise, exquisite corpse.
Exquisite corpse
Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver or rotating corpse, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original...
Pepe's break into the art world began with inclusion into a 1996 group exhibition of Boston Area Artists at Rose Art Museum
Rose Art Museum
The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from the Brandeis University art collections...
and in "Gothic: Transmutations of Horror in Late 20th Century Art" at the ICP in Boston in 1997. Her more recent work can be exemplified by her installation "Mind the Gap", 2005, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "Mind the Gap" was a site-specific sculptural work responding to the architecture of the gallery where shoelaces and nautical toe-line were intertwined and webbed throughout the space. This work instigated a dialogue between domestic and industrial materials and responded to a 1982 installation "Boa" by Judy Pfaff
Judy Pfaff
Judy Pfaff, born 1946 in London, England, is an American artist, known mainly for Installation art. Pfaff has received numerous awards for her work, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National...
in the same place.
She has won awards including the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Scholarship, 1998, and the Louise Comfort Tiffany Foundation award, 2001. She has taught art in many school throughout Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia since 1985. She currently holds an administrative position at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in Brooklyn, NY, as the acting assistant dean of the school of fine arts. Her works are held in public collections including the Fogg Art Museum
Fogg Art Museum
The Fogg Museum, opened to the public in 1896, is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. The Fogg joins the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museums....
of Harvard University and Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
, NYC.
External links
- http://www.sheilapepe.com/
- http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/gallery/sheila_pepe.php