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Willie Cole

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Willie Cole
Born
Willie Cole

(1955-01-03) January 3, 1955 (age 69)
New Jersey, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationBachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, New York
Known forSculpture, Painting, Visual Arts
Awards2006 David C. Driskell Prize
Websitehttp://www.williecole.com/

Willie Cole (born 1955 in Somerville, New Jersey) is a contemporary American sculptor, printer, and conceptual and visual artist. His work uses contexts of postmodern eclecticism, and combines references and appropriation from African and African-American imagery. He also has used Dada’s readymades and Surrealism’s transformed objects, as well as icons of American pop culture or African and Asian masks.

Works

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Schwinn tji-wara (2002) at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC

Cole is best known for assembling and transforming ordinary domestic and used objects such as irons, ironing boards, high-heeled shoes, hair dryers, bicycle parts, wooden matches, lawn jockeys, and other discarded appliances and hardware, into imaginative and powerful works of art and installations.

"The objects that I use I see as them finding me, more so than me finding them and looking for an object. I see an object and suddenly I recognize what I can do with the object. So in that sense there is an energy or spirit connection to the object. I am exploring the possibilities of these objects. [...] I say that I can make anything out of everything and everything out of anything. I challenge myself to do that. Sometimes it takes longer than I’d like which is why I work in series as I try to master the thing. I made art out of irons for 15 years before I switched to bicycles. I do shoes steady now since 2005 but it’s all the same thing to me. It’s a different object on our level of everyday perception but once you see it as a particle the possibilities are endless."[1]

In 1989, Cole garnered attention in the art world with works using the steam iron as a motif. Cole imprinted iron scorch marks on a variety of media, showing not only their wide-ranging decorative potential but also to reference Cole’s African-American heritage.[2] He used the marks to suggest the transport and branding of slaves, the domestic role of black women, and ties to Ghanaian cloth design and Yoruba gods.[3]

Through the repetitive use of single objects in multiples, Cole’s assembled sculptures acquire a transcending and renewed metaphorical meaning, or become a critique of our consumer culture. Cole’s work is generally discussed in the context of postmodern eclecticism, combining references and appropriation ranging from African and African-American imagery, to Dada’s readymades and Surrealism’s transformed objects, and icons of American pop culture or African and Asian masks, into highly original and witty assemblages.[4] Some of Cole’s interactive installations also draw on simple game board structures that include the element of chance while physically engaging the viewer.[5]

His "Anne Klein With a Baby in Transit," from 2009, uses discarded high-heeled shoes to depict a mother and child. The well-worn black shoes combine to recall traditional African sculptures. It was a gift from the Brenden Mann Foundation to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.[6]

Cole's work is included in the Afrofuturist Period Room exhibition Before Yesterday We Could Fly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[7]

Shows

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Select solo shows

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Select group shows

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  • 2017, "Operation Chromebody," Highpoint Editions, Minneapolis
  • 2017, "Walker Street Summer," Alexander and Bonin, New York
  • 2015, "Surrealism: The Conjured Life," MCA Chicago, Chicago
  • 2012, "Afro: Black Identity in America and Brazil," Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, [16]
  • 2011, "Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY[17]

Life

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Early life

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Willie Cole was born in 1955 in Somerville, New Jersey. He later moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he found a passion for the field of arts. He says, “I think I was an artist in a previous life. When I was 3 years old, my mom found me drawing in the kitchen, and since then, my family always said I was an artist. I went along with it. I enjoyed it.”[18] Cole later took classes at the Newark Museum.[19] After attending the museum for lessons, he was accepted to the Arts High School of Newark.[20]

Cole received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York in 1976, and continued his studies at the Art Students League of New York from 1976 to 1979. Cole currently lives and works in Mine Hill, New Jersey.

Career

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In 1978, Cole found work as a graphic designer for the Queens County Borough Hall[21] as part of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act's employment of artists.[22] Further pursuing his passion, he later progressed and hosted his first major gallery show, located at Franklin Furnace Gallery in New York City,[23] in 1989. In 1990, he participated as the Artist-In-Residence at the Studio Museum,[24] located in Harlem, New York.

Willie Cole is the recipient of many awards. In 1991, he received The Penny McCall Foundation Grant. In 1995, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant. In 1996, he received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, which annually supports 15 US-based artists working in painting and sculpture, providing financial support, skill development, and community building.[25] In 2000, Cole was artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/ Industry Program in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In 2002, he received the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial Fellowship, an award presented to an emerging artist practicing in the United States. In 2006, he received the David C. Driskell Prize, the first national award to honor and celebrate contributions to the field of African-American art and art history, established by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.[26]

Cole is represented by Alexander and Bonin Gallery[27] in New York; and by Guido Maus, beta pictoris gallery / Maus Contemporary[28] in Birmingham, AL.

In 2023, Cole's work With a Heart of Gold, was acquired by the Pérez Art Museum Miami through the institution's Fund for Black Art program.[29][30]

References

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  1. ^ Souleo (2013-05-01). "Upcycled: A Conversation With Willie Cole". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  2. ^ Article on Willie Cole’s 2007 exhibit at the Frye Museum of Art
  3. ^ "Cole, Willie". Oxford Art Online.
  4. ^ Worcester Art Museum Catalogue of Cole’s 2005-2006 exhibit
  5. ^ Anxious Objects: Willie Cole's Favorite Brands By Smith, Patterson, Leslie King-Hammond, Lowery Stokes Sims. Published 2006. Montclair Art Museum Publn.
  6. ^ "Anne Klein With a Baby in Transit".
  7. ^ "In 'Before Yesterday We Could Fly,' Visions of a Fictive Black Future Take Flight at the Met". Vogue. 2021-11-02. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
  8. ^ "Willie Cole at Alexander and Bonin – Art Viewer". 2019-06-15. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  9. ^ "Willie Cole: Beauties". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  10. ^ "Gallery Past Exhibitions | Hillier College of Architecture and Design". design.njit.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  11. ^ Dame, Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre. "Making Everything Out of Anything: Prints, Drawings, and Sculptures by Willie Cole". Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  12. ^ ""Willie Cole: On Site" At The David C. Driskell Center | The David C. Driskell Center". driskellcenter.umd.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  13. ^ "Willie Cole: On-Site". Arthur Ross Gallery. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  14. ^ Colunga, Armando. "Transformations - Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts". www.uab.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  15. ^ "Complex Conversations: Willie Cole Sculptures and Wall Works". Grinnell College. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  16. ^ "Willie Cole - 111 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy".
  17. ^ "Reconfiguring an African Icon". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  18. ^ Steinmetz, Channa (2023-06-28). "After his eye-catching KCI installation took flight, Willie Cole had 100+ horns leftover; He kept building". Startland News. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  19. ^ "Willie Cole's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  20. ^ "Homepage". Arts High School. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  21. ^ "Queens Borough Hall - Department of Citywide Administrative Services". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  22. ^ Bomb magazine, “Oral History Project,” interview with Nancy Princenthal, December 12, 2019
  23. ^ "Franklin Furnace: Performance is Public". www.bklynlibrary.org. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  24. ^ "The Studio Museum in Harlem". The Studio Museum in Harlem. Retrieved 2022-04-28.
  25. ^ "Willie Cole". Joan Mitchell Foundation. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
  26. ^ Willie Cole's David C. Driskell Prize
  27. ^ "Alexander and Bonin". Alexander and Bonin. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  28. ^ "maus contemporary - Willie Cole". www.mauscontemporary.com. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  29. ^ "Pérez Art Museum Miami Announces Tenth Anniversary of Art + Soul Celebration, Honoring Actor and Activist Jesse Williams • Pérez Art Museum Miami". Pérez Art Museum Miami. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  30. ^ Straaten, Laura van (2023-02-23). "Willie Cole's Ecological Interventions Turn Trash Into Art". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
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