My work connects LGBTQ+ bodies with wild places, making kin between queerness and wildness.
Site visits to wild places are the backbone of my practice, and the resulting work is constructed documentation of these performative acts. I place my body in my work in layers: photos I’ve taken at a site; the line of the route I traveled there; my photos of wild and companion animals; my clothing; plant material I’ve grown or collected ethically; objects and materials I’ve recontextualized.
Articulated as three-dimensional sculpture, these performances describe a kinship between body and place where both represent an other that is uncanny: palpable yet mysterious, joyful yet grieving.
My background in journalism and horticulture heavily informs my art practice. Both emphasize the action of bearing witness—one to the human experience, the other to that of plants, and thereby the natural world.
Andrew Keys Pepper (b. 1978, Pike County, Mississippi) is a multidisciplinary artist working in fiber, photography, and sculpture. Pepper’s work is shaped by his education in journalism, and as a horticulturist, as well as his experience as a queer youth in the rural American South in a family of gardeners, farmers, and outdoorsmen.
A writer and editor for more than 10 years prior to pursuing visual art, Pepper has lectured in academic and public settings at San Francisco Art Institute, University of Connecticut, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill, Berkshire Botanic Garden, Native Plant Trust, and others. From 2010 to 2015, he oversaw the digital presence of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and (as Andrew Keys) published work in horticulture media including two books: Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? (Timber, 2012), and Growing the Northeast Garden (Timber, 2014). His written and audio work have appeared in This Old House, Fine Gardening, Horticulture magazines, and others.
Pepper received a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute in 2019, where he earned the Outstanding Graduate Student Award. In 2001, he received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The University of Memphis, and in 2016, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from SMFA at Tufts University, where he was awarded the Museum School Council Sculpture Prize for excellence in sculpture. Since 2021, he has taught in the foundation program at Maine College of Art & Design in Portland.
EDUCATION
2019 / Master of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2016 / Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA
2005 / Graduate Certificate, Management of Community Organizations, Tufts University, Medford, MA
2001 / Bachelor of Arts, Journalism, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TNAWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2024 / Chulitna Lodge Wilderness Retreat Creative Residency, Lake Clark National Park, AK
2020 / Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, VT
2019 / Outstanding Graduate Student Award, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2018 / Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award (Nominee), International Sculpture Center, Hamilton, NJ and San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2016 / SFAI Fellowship, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2016 / Museum School Council Sculpture Prize, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA
2015 / Presidential Scholarship, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MATWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2020
”Emergent,” with Kristin Street, Kendall Reiss Gallery & Studio, Bristol, RISELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
”Future Craft,” Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA
”Summer Show,” Maine College of Art & Design, Portland, ME
”In Flux: Recalibrating the Unknown,” Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, CA2023
”I have stood in doorways and looked Ahead,” Maine College of Art & Design, Portland, ME
”ARTPM,” BUOY, Kittery, ME2022
”Blue Sky Flooding,” Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI2021
”PRIDE 2021,” Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT / virtual2020
”Everyday in August,” bosscritt, Boston, MA / virtual
”Touchy Feely,” Gallery 263, Cambridge, MA / virtual2019
”Nested,” In/Passing, New York City, NY
”MFA Exhibition,” Fort Mason Center, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA2018
”Shadows,” Swell Gallery, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
”6x6x2018,” Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY
”Secret Gardens,” Nave Gallery, Somerville, MA
”Starting Over Festival,” Quincy Street Open Space, Somerville, MA2017
”I Bruise Easily,” Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
”Below the Threshold,” Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA2016
”Postage Required: A Mail-Art Exhibition,” Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT
”Discreet Connections,” Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
”IN2016: New Visions and Visionaries,” iartcolony, Rockport, MA
”Amended: Collages, Altered Books, and Mixed Media Works,” Hunt Memorial Library, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MASELECTED PUBLIC AND ACADEMIC LECTURES
2021
Visiting Artist, Studio Talks, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA / virtual2018
Visiting Artist, Visual Language, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA2017
Guest Lecturer, Summer Studio, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA2016
Visiting Artist, Recycled, Reused, Reconfigured, SMFA at Tufts, Boston, MA
Visiting Artist, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Seminar, SMFA at Tufts, Boston, MA
Guest Lecturer, Art Since 1945, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Guest Lecturer, Professional Practices, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Public Lecturer, University of Connecticut Garden Conference, Storrs, CT2015
Public Lecturer, University of Rhode Island Master Gardeners Association, Warwick, RI
Public Lecturer, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, MA
Public Lecturer, Native Plant Trust, Framingham, MA2013
Public Lecturer, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA
Public Lecturer, Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society, Madison, WI
Public Lecturer, Horticultural Society of New YorkSELECTED WRITTEN WORK
BOOKS
2015 / Growing the Northeast Garden, Timber Press
2012 / Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?, Timber PressARTICLES AND ESSAYS
2019 / “Alone on the mountain — where I belonged,” Experience
2018 / “Strong summer bloomers,” Fine Gardening
2016 / “Plant your own private prairie,” This Old House
2014 / “Trade in your troublesome plants,” Fine Gardening
2014 / “Avoid invasives: plant this, not that,” This Old House
2011 / “Improved varieties of old favorites,” Fine Gardening
2010 / “Plant picks: Japanese spikenard,” Fine Gardening
2009 / “Perennials for fall”, Fine GardeningCERTIFICATIONS
2013 / Certificate, Audio Storytelling, Maine Media Workshops
2007 / Certificate, Organic Land Care, Northeast Organic Farming Association