Willie Cole

Alexander and Bonin is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition at 132 Tenth Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets).

Willie Cole (American, born 1955) will have his first New York exhibition since 1994. Cole will exhibit recent sculptures which continue several of his intersets and themes. Some of these works are based on the form of an iron -- an image which he began investigating in 1989. Cole was first attracted to the iron for both its form and for its perceived embodiment of the spirit of the person who used the iron. The earliest versions, which he referred to as Household Gods and Domestic Demons, dealt with these ideas by utilizing found objects. More recently, Cole has been constructing enlarged versions (i.e. an iron 600 times actual size) made from diverse materials both found (banisters, pullies) and constructed or carved (two egg 'beaters' that resemble African sculpture and which were carved out of two large sections of porch post).

Since his last New York show, Cole has been an artist-in-residence at Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle; The Contemporary, Baltimore and Capp Street Project, San Francisco. His work is currently featured in the group exhibitions Biennial for Public Art, Neuberger Museum, Purchase and Performance Anxiety organized by MCA, Chicago and now on view at Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Cole's Sculptures are included in permanent museum collections in Chicago, Dallas, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis and Stanford. Simultaneous with his show at Alexander and Bonin is his first one-person exhibition in Europe at the Galerie Almine Rech, Paris.

Willie Cole: New Sculpture