Michele Pred

Projecting Democracy

February 5 - March 21, 2026

 
 

Nancy Hoffman Gallery is pleased to announce Projecting Democracy, a solo exhibition by Swedish-American artist Michele Pred, on view February 5 through March 21, 2026. The exhibition brings together five large-scale photographs, sculptural installations, and new mixed-media works that explore themes of equality, bodily autonomy, freedom, and collective resistance. The majority of the works were made between 2022 and 2025, with the exception of Confiscated (stack) (2002 – 2026). 

At the heart of Projecting Democracy is Pred’s powerful series of public projections, made between November 2024 – November 2025, illuminating cultural landmarks including the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Federal Building in San Francisco, and Yellowstone National Park. Using architecture as canvas, Pred projects bold feminist statements, phrases like “Vote for Democracy” and “Equal Pay”, and “This Land is Your Land” to reclaim public space as a forum for dialogue and empowerment. She often integrates images of her artwork with the text slogans, creating a powerful visual conversation between message, form, and place. A looping projection inside the gallery extends this dialogue globally, featuring images from additional activations in Berkeley, Washington, D.C., and Sweden.  

Pred’s commitment to merging activism and art continues in a series of sculptural and installation works that reflect on justice, resilience, and remembrance.  

  • Confiscated (stack) (2002 – 2026) revisits the thousands of airport-confiscated “sharps” collected in the wake of 9/11, marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks and exploring the lingering imprint of fear and control on public life.

  • In The Body on Trial (2025), Pred constructs a monumental uterus and fallopian tubes from vintage judge’s gavels, transforming instruments of authority into symbols of resistance. The sculpture confronts the role of law in governing women’s bodies and reproductive rights, challenging the systems that continue to legislate personal autonomy.

  • In Domestic Warfare (2025), Pred transforms a vintage chandelier into a haunting symbol of contradiction and control. Interwoven with bullets and glass crystals, the sculpture confronts the intersection of domestic beauty and domestic violence.

  • Strength in Numbers (2023) features five oversized Rosie the Riveter sculptures, cast in resin in hues of pink and army green, symbolizing solidarity and feminist power.   

Also debuting in Projecting Democracy is a new body of work that reflects Pred’s Swedish heritage, incorporating found and reworked items collected across Sweden into a series of intimate collages. These works provide a deeply personal counterpoint to the large-scale projections, grounding her activism in ancestry and identity.

Through these diverse works, Pred transforms light, history, and material into a unified language of resistance and hope. Projecting Democracy underscores the power of collective visibility and the importance of art keeping the democratic spirit alive.

About the Artist

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 women artists. Pred has been represented by Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York since 2004.  

Her work is in the collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) in Berkeley, CA; the 21c Museum Hotels; the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York; and the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York. Pred’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at the V&A Museum in London, The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) in Berkeley, CA; Neuberger Museum, White Plains, NY; Bild Museet, Millesgården, and Kulturhuset in Sweden; University of Westminster, London; Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, CA; University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; Omi International Art Center, Ghent, NY; ASU Museum, Tempe, AZ; the Honolulu Museum of Art, HI; Museum of Design, Atlanta, amongst others. 

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. Her work has been reviewed and featured by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Art Newspaper, The New York Observer, The LA Times, The International Herald Tribune, Artnet News, ARTnews, Art in America, WIRED, Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, TimeOut New York, CNN International and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Pred received her BFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland, California. She lives in Berkeley, CA.