Michelle Pred
Vote Feminist
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, NY
October 18 – November 24th, 2018
An upcoming exhibition by Michele Pred at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York, NY titled Vote Feminist is a call to resist, to vote and to empower. Pred’s politically charged artwork, “My Body My Business” was featured in The Untitled Space’s “One Year of Resistance” group show last January, and her new solo show presents more works along the same lines as well as a body of new sculptural pieces that request electoral action and political resistance to misogyny. Vote Feminist, opening this Thursday, October 18th, presents a series of full-sized, manipulated but authentic, vintage voting booths as well as other works that call out injustices and violence in the hopes that the viewers will be inspired to take civil action.
“Vote Feminist is a call to resist, with everything we have, the hateful, fear-based and blatantly misogynistic policies of the current American government administration. It is a call to vote in November, to elect officials who will represent the true majority in this country while protecting and empowering the disenfranchised.”
In her most recent work featured in the show, Pred focuses on the violence that has given rise from the police force. This includes pieces such as “Blue Rain’ where a suspended umbrella can be seen dropping handgun parts. Decorating the show, there are also riot shields decorated with the slogans “My body By Business” and “Me Too” in pink nail polish and bullet-proof vests covered in satin. These are similar to her other works in the show which explore women’s inequalities in the world.
Another feature of the show is titled “Wage Gaps” and depicts a series of cut dollar bills, which are meant to represent the lack of wage equality across gender and racial groups. Finally, the show features vintage purses, such as the one featured in Untitled Space’s ONE YEAR OF RESISTANCE show, that were altered and designed to have feminist messages written in electroluminescent wire on them. The idea is to create artwork that can be worn, expanding the audience of the show’s message from the gallery to the streets. The purses have slogans such as “Vote Feminist” and “Times Up” written on them and have been previously been worn by Hillary Clinton, Amy Shumer, and Nancy Pelosi.
“Ms Pred’s work is an important offering for its relevance to the times” – Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor
Pred plans on taking her ideology of carrying her exhibition’s message to the streets further by literally organizing a feminist art parade. The parade, labeled “Nevertheless We Vote,” will appear in Washington Square Park in New York City on November 3, 2018. It is meant to focus on the midterm elections and to motivate artists to move their work, and their voices, out of studios and galleries and onto the street where they are more accessible by a larger, public audience.
