Willie Cole

File:Schwinn tji-wara, 2002, Willie Cole.jpg 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."{{Cite web |last=Souleo |date=2013-05-01 |title=Upcycled: A Conversation With Willie Cole |url=http://hyperallergic.com/69962/upcycled-a-conversation-with-willie-cole/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}

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.[http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/afterburn.pdf Worcester Art Museum Catalogue of Cole’s 2005-2006 exhibit] Some of Cole’s interactive installations also draw on simple game board structures that include the element of chance while physically engaging the viewer.Anxious Objects: Willie Cole's Favorite Brands By Smith, Patterson, Leslie King-Hammond, Lowery Stokes Sims. Published 2006. Montclair Art Museum Publn.

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.{{Cite web|url=http://collections.artsmia.org/art/108443/anne-klein-with-a-baby-in-transit-willie-cole|title=Anne Klein With a Baby in Transit|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=|access-date=}}

Cole's work is included in the Afrofuturist Period Room exhibition Before Yesterday We Could Fly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{Cite web |date=2021-11-02 |title=In 'Before Yesterday We Could Fly,' Visions of a Fictive Black Future Take Flight at the Met |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/before-yesterday-we-could-fly-afrofuturist-period-room-met-museum |access-date=2022-02-05 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}

• 2019, "Willie Cole: Bella Figura," Alexander and Bonin, New York, NY{{Cite web |date=2019-06-15 |title=Willie Cole at Alexander and Bonin – Art Viewer |url=https://artviewer.org/willie-cole-at-alexander-and-bonin/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |language=en-US}}
• 2019, "Willie Cole: Beauties," Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA{{Cite web |title=Willie Cole: Beauties |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/willie-cole-beauties-exhibition |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University |language=en}}
• 2017, "Willie Cole: Made in Newark," College of Architecture and Design Gallery, The New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ{{Cite web |title=Gallery Past Exhibitions {{!}} Hillier College of Architecture and Design |url=https://design.njit.edu/gallery-past-exhibitions |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=design.njit.edu}}
• 2017, "Making Everything Out of Anything: Prints, Drawings, and Sculptures by Willie Cole," Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN{{Cite web |last=Dame |first=Marketing Communications: Web {{!}} University of Notre |title=Making Everything Out of Anything: Prints, Drawings, and Sculptures by Willie Cole |url=https://raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu/explore/exhibitions/making-everything-out-of-anything-prints-drawings-and-sculptures-by-willie-cole/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Raclin Murphy Museum of Art |language=en}}
• 2016 - 2017, "Willie Cole: On-Site," David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland;{{Cite web |title="Willie Cole: On Site" At The David C. Driskell Center {{!}} The David C. Driskell Center |url=https://driskellcenter.umd.edu/news/willie-cole-site-david-c-driskell-center |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=driskellcenter.umd.edu |language=en}} Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire; Arthur Ross Gallery, Philadelphia{{Cite web |title=Willie Cole: On-Site |url=https://arthurrossgallery.org/event/willie-cole-on-site/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Arthur Ross Gallery |language=en-US}}
• 2015, "Willie Cole: Aquaphilic," 808 Gallery, Boston University, Boston, MA
• 2015, "Willie Cole," Mazmanian Gallery, Framingham State University, Framingham, MA
• 2015, "Flawlessly Feminine: Women Who Graced the Cover and Works by Willie Cole," The Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
• 2015, "Willie Cole: Transformations," Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL{{Cite web |last=Colunga |first=Armando |title=Transformations - Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts |url=https://www.uab.edu/aeiva/exhibitions/transformations |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=www.uab.edu |language=en-US}}
• 2013 - 2014, "Complex Conversations: Willie Cole Sculptures and Wall Works," Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC; The College of Wooster Art Museum, Ebert Art Center, Wooster, OH; Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA;{{Cite web |title=Complex Conversations: Willie Cole Sculptures and Wall Works |url=https://www.grinnell.edu/news/complex-conversations-willie-cole-sculptures-and-wall-works |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Grinnell College |language=en}} Houghton College, Houghton, NY
• 2013 - 2014, "E Pluribus Unum," Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
• 2013, "If wishes were horses...," Alexander and Bonin, New York, NY
• 2013, "Willie Cole: Illuminations and Transformations," Schneider Museum of Art at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR
• 2013, "From Water to Light," Prospect Street Firestation Gallery, Newark, NJ
• 2012, "Deep Impressions: Willie Cole Works on Paper and Sculpture," Rowan University Art Gallery, Glassboro, NJ
• 2010 - 2011, "Deep Impressions: Willie Cole Works on Paper," The James Gallery, The City University of New York, New York, NY; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN; Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

• 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, {{Cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/artist/willie-cole|title = Willie Cole - 111 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy}}
• 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{{Cite web |title=Reconfiguring an African Icon |url=https://www3.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/reconfiguring-an-african-icon |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}

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.”{{Cite web |last=Steinmetz |first=Channa |date=2023-06-28 |title=After his eye-catching KCI installation took flight, Willie Cole had 100+ horns leftover; He kept building |url=https://www.startlandnews.com/2023/06/willie-cole/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Startland News |language=en-US}} Cole later took classes at the Newark Museum.{{Cite web |title=Willie Cole's Biography |url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/willie-cole |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=The HistoryMakers |language=en}} After attending the museum for lessons, he was accepted to the Arts High School of Newark.{{Cite web |title=Homepage |url=https://www.nps.k12.nj.us/ART/ |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=Arts High School |language=en-US}}

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.

In 1978, Cole found work as a graphic designer for the Queens County Borough Hall{{Cite web |title=Queens Borough Hall - Department of Citywide Administrative Services |url=https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dcas/business/dcasmanagedbuildings/queens-borough-hall.page |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=www1.nyc.gov}} as part of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act's employment of artists.Bomb magazine, “Oral History Project,” [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/willie-cole/ interview with Nancy Princenthal], December 12, 2019 Further pursuing his passion, he later progressed and hosted his first major gallery show, located at Franklin Furnace Gallery in New York City,{{Cite web |date=2019-05-06 |title=Franklin Furnace: Performance is Public |url=https://www.bklynlibrary.org/exhibitions/franklin-furnace |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=www.bklynlibrary.org |language=en-us}} in 1989. In 1990, he participated as the Artist-In-Residence at the Studio Museum,{{Cite web |title=The Studio Museum in Harlem |url=https://studiomuseum.org/ |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=The Studio Museum in Harlem |language=en}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Willie Cole |url=https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/willie-cole |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=Joan Mitchell Foundation |language=en}} 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.[http://www.high.org/main.taf?p=2,4,1,3 Willie Cole's David C. Driskell Prize]

Cole is represented by Alexander and Bonin Gallery{{Cite web|url=http://www.alexanderandbonin.com/artist/willie-cole|title=Alexander and Bonin|website=Alexander and Bonin|access-date=2017-09-21}} in New York; and by Guido Maus, beta pictoris gallery / Maus Contemporary{{Cite web|url=http://www.mauscontemporary.com/beta_pictoris_Maus_Contemporary_Art_gallery_Willie_Cole.html|title=maus contemporary - Willie Cole|website=www.mauscontemporary.com|access-date=2017-09-21}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Pérez Art Museum Miami Announces Tenth Anniversary of Art + Soul Celebration, Honoring Actor and Activist Jesse Williams • Pérez Art Museum Miami |url=https://www.pamm.org/en/press/perez-art-museum-miami-announces-tenth-anniversary-of-art-soul-celebration-honoring-actor-and-activist-jesse-williams/ |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Straaten |first=Laura van |date=2023-02-23 |title=Willie Cole's Ecological Interventions Turn Trash Into Art |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/arts/design/willie-cole-art-newark.html |access-date=2023-02-24 |issn=0362-4331}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.williecole.com Willie Cole’s website]
• [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/cole_willie.html Willie Cole’s art in Artcyclopedia]
• [http://www.alexanderandbonin.com/artists/cole/cole.html Willie Cole's Art Gallery]
• [https://www.youtube.com/user/DubbleYouSee TV Interview with Willie Cole, and other video clips]
• [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A7057&page_number=3&template_id=1&sort_order=1 Willie Cole at MoMA]
• [https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Willie%20Cole Willie Cole at Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN]

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Category:1955 births

Category:Living people

Category:African-American contemporary artists

Category:American contemporary artists

Category:20th-century American sculptors

Category:21st-century American sculptors

Category:21st-century American male artists

Category:American male sculptors

Category:American conceptual artists

Category:American postmodern artists

Category:Artists from Newark, New Jersey

Category:Franklin Furnace artists

Category:Sculptors from New Jersey

Category:African-American sculptors

Category:20th-century African-American artists

Category:21st-century African-American artists

Category:20th-century American male artists