Mitzi Pederson

Background

Pederson was born in 1976 in Stuart, Florida.

Education

She has an Master of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the California College of the Arts, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printing, painting, and drawing, along with a minor in architecture, from Carnegie Mellon University, and studied at L"École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France.

Career

Pederson is known for her use of ordinary household, construction, and building materials to explore sculptural concepts of weight, tension, balance, and permanence. Pederson splits her time between San Francisco and Berlin. Pederson began showing during her time at the California College of the Arts, appearing with regularity in gallery exhibitions at the institution and in galleries around the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2008, Pederson"s work was included in the Whitney Biennial, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

Both the SECA Award and the Whitney Biennial focus on emerging, lesser known contemporary artists. The Biennial has been described as "one of the most important surveys of the state of contemporary art in the United States." In 2008, art critic Glen Helfand included Pederson"s exhibition "Unlet Maine Go" as a selection in his top ten "exhibitions, events, and films" from 2007 based on "joy, originality, and serious subtext." Her work has been described by curators as possessing a graceful use of balance, deliberation, and incongruity, while marrying elements in unexpected or impracticable ways.

She is noted for "restrained gestures," "contemplative" investigations of energy and time. Critics have described her work as "sparse smart," having a "savvy humbleness," and "slight in a cerebral way," while citing her "aesthetic sensibility and formal courage" and ability to produce a "radical evolution of simple things." Critics have suggested Pederson"s work has antecedents in and influences from sculptors such Richard Serra, Richard Tuttle, and Anselm Reyle.

Her work has been compared favorably with work by Joëlle Tuerlinckx and James Turrell.

Achievements

• SECA Art Award 2006, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Whitney Biennial 2008, Whitney Museum of American Artist