Michele Pred (born 1966) is a Swedish-American conceptual artist whose practice includes sculpture, assemblage, and performance. Her work uncovers the cultural and political meaning behind everyday objects with a particular focus on themes like equal pay, reproductive rights, and personal security. Her projects also contain social components that drive the conversation into public spaces. Examples include her exploration of the intersection of personal space and security using airport confiscated items after 9/11, the cultural background of the fight for reproductive rights using thousands of expired birth control pills and the continuing economic and political struggle for women's rights represented by her modified vintage handbag editions.

Biography

Pred was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. She grew up in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, where her father, Allan Pred was a professor of geography at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, and in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

."The Hunt Is On"
''Oakland Magazine,'' Linda Childers. September–October 2012 She attended

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

in Oakland in the 1990s and graduated with distinction in Interdisciplinary Arts.

Career

''Vote Feminist,'' Pred's fall 2018 solo show at Nancy Hoffman Gallery, foregrounded political issues of voting, pay inequity based on gender and race, and

gun violence Gun-related violence is violence against a person committed with the use of a firearm to inflict a gunshot wound. Gun violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable ...

. During Miami Art Week in November 2017, Pred organized a ''Parade Against Patriarchy''. Pred curated artists to participate from all over the United States including Pussy Hat creator 'Krista Suh. For "Equal Pay Day" on April 4, 2017, Pred handed out precisely cut dollar bills to "reflect the pay percentages paid to women based on their race." Pred performed her art work for an hour on Market street in San Francisco to spread word about the

gender pay gap The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are Employment, employed. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct measurements of the pay gap: non ...

. April 14, 2017 Amy Schumer included Pred's limited edition "Pro Choice" handbag in her "19 Things Amy Schumer Really Loves" interview with InStyle. Schumer also promoted the handbag on Instagram. In October, 2016 Pred, dressed as a 1960s era stewardess handed out "Official Air Travel Replacement" pocket knives in the San Francisco International Airport's baggage terminal to commemorate the 15th anniversary of September 11 and the passage of the Patriot Act. In 2016 Pred created a series of T-shirt designs promoting women's reproductive freedom. Her work is in the permanent collection at the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York. Pred created an art series as a response to Supreme Court decisions limiting access to abortion and contraceptives for women. In 2007 she created an exhibit featuring items confiscated at airports for security reasons."How Michele Pred Fights Fear Culture"
Lou Fancher.''East Bay Express'', August 30, 2016. Pred was an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts from 2007 to 2015."California College of the Arts: Faculty: Michele Pred." Michele Pred. California College of the Arts, 2015. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.

Collaborations & Public Projects

Pred is a member of For Freedoms, the first artist-run Super PAC founded by artists Eric Gottesman and

Hank Willis Thomas Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976) is an American conceptual artist. Based in Brooklyn, New York, he works primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Early life and education Hank Willis Thomas was born in 1976 in P ...

. She has participated in several projects with the organization including an exhibition at Jack Shainman in New York, and her project #HerBodyHerVote at Expo Chicago, 2016, and an electronic billboard "My Body My Business" by the San Mateo Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pred, Michele 1966 births Living people 21st-century American women artists California College of the Arts alumni Artists from San Francisco