Michele Pred: Projecting Democracy

Michele Pred 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 concentration on feminist themes such as equal pay, reproductive rights, and personal security. Pred's projects also contain social components that drive the conversation into public spaces. Examples include her exploration of the intersection of personal space and security by 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. Since January 2016, Pred has organized 15 feminist art parades and activations in numerous cities, including Oakland, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, New York, and Stockholm, Sweden. 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, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, 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 For Freedoms. Pred has exhibited both nationally and internationally at the V&A Museum in London, The Berkeley Art Museum (BAMPFA) in Berkeley, CA; Neuberger Museum, White Plains, NY; Bild Museet and Kulturhuset in Sweden; University of Westminster, London; Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco; 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 her BFA from California College of the Arts, Oakland, California. She was born in San Francisco and lives in Oakland, CA.