Pepón Osorio is an internationally recognized artist whose richly detailed installations challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions that shape our view of social institutions and human relationships. In this book, Jennifer A. González shows that although Osorio draws on his Puerto Rican background and the immigrant experience for inspiration, his artistic statements bridge geographical barriers and class divides.
Narratively powerful (aligned with a history of visual arts storytellers like Adrian Piper and Edward Kienholz), visually compelling, and ethically just, Pepón Osorio stands as a transitional figure bridging museum installation and field-based social practices. He is, in fact, one of the first American figures in this field to focus a deeply implicated, and sympathetic, eye on the lives of the so-called others—the immigrants, the violated, and the working class—in ways that are comprehensible to people from all walks of life. I admire his work intensely, and I can think of no one better equipped to tell his story than Jennifer González.
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Suzanne Lacy, Chair, MFA Public Practice at Otis College of Art and Design