Michele Pred

Untitled (chandelier), 2006, mixed media.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling, 2007, mixed media.

Double Edge, 2006, mixed media.

Untitled, 2007, mixed media.

Michele Pred – ‘Predilections’@ Nancy Hoffman Gallery

“Predilections” is the next exhibition at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, a show of new works by San Francisco-based artist Michele Pred. The exhibition opens on February 10th and continues through March 15th. There will be a reception for the artist in the gallery on Saturday, February 24th, from 4-6 pm.

Pred’s title for the show, “Predilections,” is both a play on the artist’s name, and her penchant for incorporating contemporary culture and politics in her art. The exhibition is dedicated in honor of her father Allan Pred, who passed away January 5, 2007. He was Professor of Cultural Geography at University of California Berkeley for 45 years and greatly influenced the themes used in her art. This is revealed in Pred’s predilection toward work that comments on contemporary society, while plumbing what might be considered its cultural artifacts, the range of objects now forbidden for travel, and using these objects as her sculptural palette and material. Pred’s preference for unconventional materials has been constant throughout her work; she employs materials associated with memory of time, place, and events. Most of her materials come from San Francisco’s International Airport, these material have been confiscated since 9/11/2001.

Pred says of her raw materials ”the diverse array of assembled ‘dangerous’ items may be regarded as the cultural residue of a particular moment in history…each small tool, like each of us, bears some weight of the changed world.” While 9/11 changed the nature of Pred’s palette, the artist has used sharp objects to create sculpture for the past 18 years, a visual metaphor for her personal pain, sometimes using these objects to create hearts; a poignant contrast of shape and substance.

Pred has expanded her vocabulary of image, form, and materials in her second New York show revealing the strength of her conceptual underpinnings, the thoroughness of her research, and the range of her sculptural expression which can only continue to blossom.

  • Nancy Hoffman
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