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Much of Pepón Osorio's work blurs the distinction between performance, sculpture, installation and video. Interested in the marriage of popular forms and critical thinking, in joining kitsch and consciousness, in combining intellect with wit, he espouses the idea that "more is more." The joyously baroque work both orders chaos and exaggerates it to the point of disbelief. In 1993, living and working in the South Bronx, he made the decision to present all new work first in Latino community settings before mounting it in museums and other art institutions; doing so, he initiated an on-going critique of art world practice and decentralized the discourse on art. Building conceptually complex, skillfully crafted environments, Osorio creates literal spaces for confrontation and negotiation, for grappling with racism, machismo, exuberance, and grief. |
| "My principal commitment as an artist is to return art to community. My creative process is one of observation, listening to stories, uncovering histories, channeling collective experiences, and transforming these into works that can serve as reflectors to the group. I see myself as standing in the center of my installations speaking into a giant microphone, while, at the same time, holding up a monumental mirror that reflects the community. I see my studio as a riverbank where dreams, fears, aspirations, disillusion, anger, frustration, humor, and vulnerabilityboth spoken and unspokencan settle and become transformed into works of art." |
Lives in New York City
1985 M.A. in Arts Education, Columbia University, New York, New York
1978 B.S., Sociology, Herbert H. Lehman College, Bronx, New York
1974 Attended Universidad Inter-Americana, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
1999 Transboricua, The RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island 1998 Las Twines, Storefront, South Bronx, New York; Hostas Art Gallery, Bronx, New York 1998 Sala seis: Pepón Osorio, Espacio Uno, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid 1998 Pepón Osorio, Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela 1997 Badge of Honor, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco 1997 El Cab, public art project/traveling exhibition, South Bronx and Manhattan, New York 1996 Badge of Honor, Ronald Feldman Fine Art, New York 1996 En la barbería no se llora, Tyler Galleries, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1995 Project 5: Pepón OsorioBadge of Honor, Storefront, 33 Broadway, Newark, New Jersey; The Newark Art Museum, Newark, New Jersey 1992 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
1996 International Association of Art Critics Award 1996 Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist's Fellowship 1995, 88 New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowships in Sculpture 1993 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award 1993 Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Film/Video Fellowship 1990 National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Individual Artist's Fellowship 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist's Fellowship in Sculpture 1985 New York Dance and Performance Award ["Bessie"]