Pat Lasch

Pat Lasch (born 1944, New York) is an American conceptual artist, sculptor, and painter whose work is rooted in personal narrative and embodied labor. Emerging in the 1970s from the downtown New York art scene, she was an early member of A.I.R. Gallery, one of the first women‑run artist collectives. Drawing on techniques from her father, a German pastry chef, and her mother, a seamstress, Lasch creates sculptural forms including meticulously sewn tondos tracing twenty generations and “pastry tube” sculptures piped like icing. Her miniature cakes and life-size ceremonial dresses elevate materials associated with feminine labor while memorializing women’s experiences, including miscarriage and abortion. Working across media—plaster, bronze, porcelain, and mixed media—her art bridges craft and conceptual practice, honoring women’s labor and resilience while interrogating cultural and institutional exclusion. Her pieces are included in major collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, and has been the subject of monographic exhibitions such as Journeys of the Heart at Palm Springs Art Museum, which surveyed over four decades of her practice. Lasch lives and works in New York and Rancho Mirage, California.