American artist Carol Hepper was born in McLaughlin, South Dakota in 1953. She was first discovered by Guggenheim curators in the early 1980s for sculptures derived from her childhood experience and immediate surroundings on the American Great Plains. Hepper was selected for a solo exhibition at P.S.1 in Queens, NY. in 1982 and was consequently selected to be part of the significant sculpture survey “New Perspectives in American Art: 1983 EXXON National Exhibition” at the Guggenheim museum. She moved to New York in 1985.
Through her wide range and use of specific materials, Hepper systematically and spontaneously placed weight on the ‘object’- its cultural implications, spatial boundaries and possibilities, as well as her respect for its power. Hepper exhibited in museums in the United States and abroad and her work is part of private and public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Modern Art; the Guggenheim Museum; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; North Dakota Museum of Art; the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, the Netherlands; and the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga, NY. Over her career, Carol received numerous awards and grants internationally. Carol passed away in New York City in 2021.
