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Renée Pepion

@reneepepion

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1700

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🥀ྀི Currently on view @torranceartmuseum Sept 19 - Nov 7 🥀ྀི
🥀ྀི New work will mainly be posted to my website. 🥀ྀི

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small gods

Desire, Devotion, and the Making of Power

What makes a god? What makes a demon? And what happens when the sacred and the monstrous exchange places?

Opening on Halloween, small gods brings together ten artists exploring desire, mythology, devotion, and the shifting boundaries of power.

Through sculpture, painting, and installation, toys become idols, bodies become offerings, and familiar objects take on supernatural lives.

Perhaps our gods are small because they are made in our own image: fragile, contradictory, playful, and perpetually becoming.

Opening Reception
Saturday, October 31, 2026 | 4–8 PM

Exhibition Dates
October 31 – December 13, 2026

Venue
a poco art
4505 S Slauson Ave, Unit 317, Culver City, CA 90230

Curated by Ann Shi

Featuring
Trevor Coopersmith, Debra Disman, Nancy Evans, Lenny Gerard, Heng Yi, Tom Knechtel, Jenn Lima, Sandeep Mukherjee, Renée Pepion, and Julie Yeo.

Join us for a Halloween opening where the divine meets the delightfully strange.

Dress up not optional 🎃 Ghosts and gods equally welcomed

RSVP via link in bio.

Exhibition in a loft studio, please respect neighbors.

#halloween2027 #culvercity #apocoart #smallgods #laarts

Artwork in flyer by Renée Pepion taken in S Slauson Ave Culver City, CA. by @reneepepion

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2 days ago

‘Pobrecita (The Little Doe) III', porcelain, oil paint, jewelry findings, ribbon, 4.25 x 11.25 x 7.5 inches by Renee Pepion @reneepepion in BAKERS DOZEN at Torrance Art Museum. Thank you @maxpresneill and @torranceartmuseum for an amazing presentation of 13 special artists.

#Torranceartmuseum
#bakersdozen
#reneepepion
#mustsee taken in TAM Torrance Art Museum by @reneepepion

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20 days ago

Tonight (9/19) is the opening of Baker’s Dozen at @torranceartmuseum. I’ll have a few pieces in the show, as will twelve other artists. Peek inside one of the upstairs windows of my piece, home/body, to see something cute.

🪰

BAKER’S DOZEN
On view from Sept 19 - Nov 07, 2026.

A survey of thirteen artists whose work made a strong impression on the curators over the past year, reflecting current directions in Southern California contemporary art.

Participating artists: Fritz Chesnut, Chelsea Culprit, Charles Hickey, Michael John Kelly, Paul Lee, Renée Pepion, David Schafer, Heidi Schwegler, Alise Spinella, Christian Spruell, Mark Dean Veca, Mark Whalen, Sining Zhu by @reneepepion

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a month ago

Congratulations Renee! One of 14 artists and culture bearers receiving a 2026 California Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship through Arts Council Santa Cruz County.

Renée Pepion (she/her) is an emerging artist practicing on California’s Central Coast. Her sculptural works strike a balance between the beautiful and the grotesque, tackling themes relating to animality, disability, and the Latin American diaspora. Her first solo exhibition, Invitation, took place in 2025 at Monte Vista Projects, and she is scheduled to exhibit work at the Torrance Art Museum in late 2026.

Website: https://www.reneepepion.com @reneepepion

Learn more about the 2026 Fellows at artscouncilsc.org (http://artscouncilsc.org/) taken in Central Coast (California) by @reneepepion

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a month ago

home/body, 2026

At @torranceartmuseum ‘s Nomad this weekend. 🫀🏠
August 7 - 9 (12pm -6pm)

21535 Hawthorne Blvd
Torrance, CA 90503 by @reneepepion

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2 months ago

Renee Pepion
Succling
49” x 22” x 38
Fabric, String, Motor, Plywood, Found Object
2022

$5,000 - AVAILABLE

art@autobodyautobody.com for inquiries by @reneepepion

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10 months ago

With Kid Gloves, 2024
(artist book)

kidskin gloves, mulberry paper, ribbon, wax, walnut, vintage handkerchiefs
7” x 12” x 6”

🥀

With Kid Gloves

I don’t want to form calluses
from the hard work
of pushing the world away,
nor do I want the meddling of
kidskin gloves
button-noosed at my wrists.

What protection
can these gloves give?

The kid,
once wrapped so tightly
in her own leather,
still couldn’t resist
when the butcher muscled in
and undressed her.

I want to slip off my gloves,
and let myself be tenderized
with each of life’s sharp elbows
nudging past.

If I’m ripped open,
I’ll take the tears as permission
not bring out sewing needles
to deny such euphoric collisions!

Let my body
become a well-traveled vessel,
a tattered dress traversed by wind;
when I thumb through a crowd,
I want each person pressed
through my abraded,
split-leather skin.

Once laid bare
by this divine flaying,
I want our ribs to lock together
like the antlers of
two jousting bucks,
our organs to slither into bows.
I want our hearts quivering
cheek-to-cheek,
sputter-blushing,
arterial arms circumposed.

And in the midst of this slaughter,
I still won’t be through;
I want the thrust
of this feral living
to knock my lusting bones askew!

Because when I succumb,
it’ll be to the weathering of
a life lived in earnest.
Death will be the last bits of animal
worn away,
dispersed like pollen
to dust every surface.

I wonder now,
if this is why the kid gave her skin.
Her whole body degloved
to let the world in.

🥀

( studio photos: @matthewabaca ) by @reneepepion

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a year ago

Necrophoresis, 2025

sugar and wax Pietà
21” x 11” x 6” by @reneepepion

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a year ago

I Was Raised Catholic, 2025

stone clay, oil paint, beads, artist’s hair, abuelita’s lamp base

21” x 10” x 8.5”

( studio photos: @matthewabaca ) by @reneepepion

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3

a year ago

Pobrecitas (The Little Snails), 2025

air dry stone clay, oil paint, escargot shells, found objects

( studio photos: @matthewabaca ) by @reneepepion

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3

a year ago

Pobrecita (The Little Fish), 2025

ceramic, wax, artist’s hair, oil paint, found objects
7” x 12” x 21”

( studio photos: @matthewabaca ) by @reneepepion

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a year ago

Striptease for a Butcher, 2025

wax, kidskin leather, satin, patent leather, lamp base
19.5” x 8.5” x 8.5”

( studio photos: @matthewabaca ) by @reneepepion

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10

a year ago