December 1st, 2025 — For this year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, David Peter Francis gallery represents Pat Oleszko (CRF 2011, DG 2019) with a survey booth centered on Big Foots (1995), a major inflatable work shown with a selection of her sculptural hats from the same period. Pat, who was just featured in The Financial Times, shifted toward inflatables initially in the early 1970s at the University of Michigan, where repeated collapses of traditionally built sculptures pushed her to reimagine her own body—and air itself—as structural support. This discovery opened the door to the large-scale wearable works and installations that have defined her practice. As she has said, once her art “walked out the door,” the world became her stage.
Working without regard for disciplinary boundaries, Oleszko’s “pedestrian art” spans costuming, installation, performance, protest, and burlesque. Her sewn nylon inflatables, powered by improvised fans and vacuums, allowed her to work on a monumental scale while keeping the uninflated pieces compact enough to store in her home studio. Big Foots debuted at Hallwalls in Buffalo and later appeared in installations and performances at Pilchuk, PS1, the University Art Gallery at California State University, the Warhol Museum, and Boston’s First Night, often activated by Oleszko and collaborators perched atop the towering legs.
This presentation coincides with anticipation for Oleszko’s forthcoming solo exhibition Fool Disclosure at SculptureCenter in New York City opening January 29th, 2026, which will examine her decades-long exploration of absurdity, performance, and inflatable form—an expansive practice that continues to challenge the limits of scale, material, and humor.