Sheila Pepe, Mind the Gap (2005), shoelaces, nautical towline, and paint, 8 x 10 x 60 ft., installed at University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Photo: D.J. Harris

New York artist Sheila Pepe will speak about her cross-disciplinary work blending craft and conceptualism. Pepe is an artist and educator known for her large-scale, ephemeral installations and sculptures made from domestic and industrial materials through a process she calls “improvisational crochet.” Since the mid-1990s, she has used lesbian feminist and craft traditions to investigate systems of power in institutions of art and education. Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Pepe comes from a lineage of craftspeople: Her grandfather had been a shoemaker, and her maternal elders were skilled in crochet. Pepe cites her family and the work of women before her as influences on her own practice, naming artists such as Judy Chicago, Eva Hesse, Mira Schor, and Nancy Spero as inspirations.

Photo: Rachel Stern

This event, co-presented by the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and the American Craft Council, is part of The M Off-Site series of programs happening throughout the Twin Cities, while the museum is closed for construction of its new facility.