4:30 pm
Linsalata Alumni Center, 11310 Juniper Road, Cleveland, OH 44106
In this presentation, Pepón Osorio will speak about the process of making his large-scale installations and his methodology for engaging working-class communities. He will highlight key projects, describing how the concept of "imperfect freedom" influences the form and aesthetics of his art. Osorio will share his philosophy, developed over many years, of embracing flaws, accepting limitations, and finding liberation in being authentically human rather than striving for impossible perfection. Through his work, Osorio empowers you to embrace your own narrative.
This event is part of the 2026 Cleveland Humanities Festival: Freedom.
Registration is requested. Register HERE.
About the speaker:
Best known for his large-scale installations, Pepón Osorio merges conceptual art and community dynamics. Osorio’s work emphasizes the exhibition space as an intermediary between the social architecture of communities and the mainstream art world. He has worked with well over 25 communities across the U.S. and internationally, creating installations based on real life experiences. For almost three decades Pepón Osorio has been presenting work in unconventional places prior to exhibiting in a museum setting, thus exploring the subjectivity of meaning in art and the multiple meanings that these installations achieve depending on their location. Osorio is Carnell Professor at the Tyler School of the Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. His work has been exhibited in El Museo del Barrio, New York (a retrospective); 1993 Whitney Biennial at Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela; Africus Institute for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Santurce, PR; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Santurce, PR.; PS1, NYC; Menil Collection, Houston Texas; Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wilfredo Lam, Bienal de Cuba, Habana, Cuba; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Philadelphia PA.; the 27th. Sao Paulo Bienal, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Modern Art in NYC and storefronts, department stores and homes in many locations throughout the world. Osorio is the recipient of numerous distinctions including the 2001 Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, an Alpert Award in the Arts-Visual Arts, 1999; and a John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation Fellowship, 2018 United States Artists Fellowship and 2022 Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Artists Fellowship among others. His most recent exhibitions My Beating Heart / Mi corazón latiente was presented at the New Museum in New York City and in 2024, Convalescence and immersive installation that occupied the lobby of Jefferson Hospital i Philadelphia, traced the experiences of five Philadelphians of color navigating the U.S. healthcare system.