Common Sense, Georgia, 2010
Artiste Sheila Pepe caught my attention after I recently read a news article about her current exhibition. It’s called Common Sense and it’s been traveling around but has now landed at the he said, she said exhibition and event in the Chicago area. Common Sense is an interactive crochet art exhibit that I find completely intriguing. Il est described as: “Incorporating ideas of abstraction and construction, the large-scale crochet “drawing” allows audiences to participate in the work by unraveling the material to be used for their own creations.” I love the idea that the art is the product as well as the process and I love how it gives a nod to the way that crocheters repurpose knit and crochet items from the past to make them into new modern creations.
More about crochet artist Sheila Pepe
Sheila Pepe is a New Jersey born artist who lives and works in New York City. She has an extensive background in art with a BA, a BFA in Cermatics, an MFA and training in blacksmithing and painting and sculpture. Wow! She has been showing her work in solo exhibitions since 1994 and she has a terrific body of work to her name. She has won numerous awards, the most recent of which was the 2009 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. She is also an art teacher who guest lectures regularly at other schools.
Examples of Sheila Pepe’s crochet art
The creativity of Pepe’s work speaks for itself. Jetez un oeil:
Women are from Mars with Crocheted Thing, 2010
Your Granny’s Not Square, 2008
Greybeard, 2008
Mutable Thing, 2011
Mr. Slit in situ
Break the Rules! Sammlung Hieber/Theising, Mannheim Kunstverein, Germany, 2008
Crafters’ Tent, part of The Big Draw, 2007
Wearable Wrap.
Commissioned by Lion Brand Yarn, 2006
Sheila Pepe around the web
- Sheila Pepe’s website
- Boston.com review of current installation
- Under the F & G – a short documentary about Sheila Pepe’s art
- ArtSlant review
- Hello Craft looks at Sheila Pepe
Food for thought
Pepe’s crochet art is clearly abstract. Does it appeal to you or are you more interested in clean line crochet art?
[...] Sheila Pepe. [...]