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| Willie Cole, The Sole Sitter, 2013, bronze. Image via alexanderandbonin.com. |
If wishes
were horses…
October 19 – November 16, 2013
132 Tenth
Avenue
New York,
NY
Alexander
and Bonin is pleased to announce If wishes were horses… an
exhibition of new works by Willie Cole. For this exhibition, Cole has created
three large paintings and two sculptures signaling a significant shift in the
scale of his work. These works demonstrate Cole’s continued interest in the
Yoruba religion and, in particular, the Orisa: Yoruba deities which represent
specific forces of nature and govern different parts of the universe.
Central to
the exhibition is the 6 foot high bronze The Sole Sitter, 2013.
Using women's high-heeled shoes enlarged many times, the artist has created a
crouched figure in a position of longing or contemplation effectively
personifying ‘the wisher’ alluded to in the title of this exhibition.
Since
1995, when he created the room-sized installation The Elegba Principle,
Cole has chosen to focus on one particular deity, Elegba, and to continue the
codification and mutation of this figure’s physical representation in his work.
Customarily rendered in black, red or white, Elegba is the messenger between
god and mankind, the god who safeguards the principle of free will and the
gatekeeper who represents choices and decisions. The lawn jockey, which the
artist also views as a covert signifier for Elegba in post-civil war/pre-civil
rights America has appeared in different forms through-out the artist’s career.
For this exhibition the artist has created two slatted wooden frames
representing window shutters; they support two carved jockeys painted in red,
black and white. The painting Special Delivery, 2013 shows the
jockey as the messenger delivering the horse to the rider. The work is flanked
with wooden doors reinforcing the role of Elegba as owner of roads and
doorways.
Willie
Cole has long used everyday domestic objects and discarded materials to
reference historical events and people. Using approximately 2,000 plastic water
bottles lined with red acetate the artist has created a 7 foot tall, Chandelier,
2013. Engaging in notions of 'upcycling' and transformation, the suspended
chandelier can be seen as a ‘spirit light.’
Willie
Cole was born in Somerville, NJ and studied at the School of Visual Arts and
the Art Students League in New York. He lives and works in New Jersey. His work
has been the subject of several one-person museum exhibitions: The Schneider
Museum at Southern Oregon University (2013), Montclair Art Museum (2006);
University of Wyoming Art Museum (2006), the Tampa Museum of Art (2004), Miami
Art Museum (2001), Bronx Museum of the Arts (2001) and the Museum of Modern
Art, New York (1998). In January 2013, Complex Conversations: Willie
Cole Sculptures and Wall Worksopened at Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery at
Western Michigan University and travels through 2014. This past spring, Cole's
chandeliers were shown at the Prospect Street Fire House in Newark, and in
2014, will also be included in the First International Biennal of Contemporary
Art in Cartagena, Colombia.
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