MICHELE PRED
Equality of Rights
September 8 - November 5, 2022
Reception: September 15th, 6 - 8 pm
Equal Pay performance at 7 pm on September 15th
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” – (Not-yet-ratified) 28th Amendment
Michele Pred’s solo show at Nancy Hoffman is a continuation of her work on Equal Rights for Women with a focus on Pay Equity and Abortion Rights. These recent works shine a light on historic and present-day inequities while demanding action now. The current amplification of these struggles only makes Pred’s works more timely.
Pred has created a new sculpture of scaled-up Abortion Pills. With new anti-choice laws passing, safer, self-administered abortion methods are moving front and center. Approximately 50% of US abortions take place via Abortion Pills. In most States, they can be purchased in online pharmacies with a valid ID and sent directly to your home. The cost is $150 with opportunities for women with economic hardships to receive them for free. Maintaining and expanding safe and easy access to these drugs is critical to saving lives.
Wage Gaps (2019), is a flag of pink-painted and unpainted dollar bills. Each pink dollar bill is stamped with the percentage women of various races earned in a 40-hour workweek in 2018 compared with a white man. Pred says about this piece, “I created this piece to highlight the connection between the ongoing wage disparities in our country, and the political and economic mechanisms that support them. Economic power both drives and reflects political and personal power in our world and change requires we keep those realities in mind. Our country has contained these inequities since its founding and, while positive change has occurred, the pace of that change has been glacial and unacceptable.” The best data available right now shows a wide disparity and clearly highlights the need for intersectional work to bring about change:
● Asian Women 88%
● White Women 79%
● Black Women 63%
● Native and Indigenous Women 59%
● Latinx Women 59%
Additional works in the show include a striking large-scale installation of mid-century metal eagles powder coated in bright pink; sculptures made of mid-century clear lucite purses filled with pink-painted dollar bills titled Pay Transparency; and a vintage brightly colored quilt from the 1960s covered in packets of birth control pills titled Sexual Revolution.
Michele Pred is a Swedish American artist and activist whose practice includes sculpture, assemblage, and performance. Her work uncovers the cultural and political meaning behind everyday objects, with a concentration on feminist themes such as equal pay, reproductive rights, and personal security. In 2020 Pred founded the initiative The Art of Equal Pay, the project confronts the racial and gender pay gaps for womxn artists. Pred has been represented by the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York since 2004. Her work is part of the permanent collection at the Berkeley Art Museum, the 21st C Museum, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, and the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York. Pred received a Pro-Choice Leadership Award from Personal PAC, Chicago, and has shown at Jack Shainman Gallery as an original member of the first artist-run super PAC, For Freedoms. Pred received her BFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland, California. Her work has been reviewed and featured by The New York Times, The New York Observer, The LA Times, The International Herald Tribune, ARTnews, Art in America, WIRED, Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, TimeOut New York, and The San Francisco Chronicle.