Caroline Cox
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The art work I make grows organically out of a direct, hands-on and intuitive manipulation of manufactured and found objects. The work is essentially nonverbal I so rely on embedded identities of found objects to infuse a layer of culturally related content. While working predominately on the floor, surrounded by piles & boxes of disparate materials, components begin to evolve as objects are randomly clumped, sewn, or pressure fit together. During the many reconfigurations that follow, gravity’s pull on pliable materials & jointed components become an important means of shaping. The mayhem & mess of this process co-opts utility & function, morphing logic into emotion; the work’s visceral interplay with gravity creates an enveloping and mutable physicality. Interacting with my work allows for the unstructured immediacy of visual perception & physical experience to connect with open-ended associations, ultimately engaging the melding and transformative interplay between one’s inner & outer existence.
Cox was born in Reno, Nevada and grew up in the outer fringes of suburban Sacramento, where as a child she explored abandoned orchards, pastures and river bluffs. In elementary school she was fascinated with the woven objects and circular structures encountered on field trips to see Indian Art. After graduating from Sacramento State University with a BA in Painting she moved to San Francisco, where she lived for four years in an artist cooperative in Dog Patch, near Bethleham Steel. Cox began experimenting with materials, and a transition from painting to sculpture/installation took place. Cox then moved to NYC with Tim Spelios, an artist and musician. After arriving in Brooklyn they formed an improvisational noise band, the Chairs, with Laurie Szujewska, David Weinstein (cofounder of Roulette, an experimental music space) and John Sherman. Cox started to exhibit her work at venues including White Columns and Rosa Esman Gallery, and attended art residencies at Edward Albee’s, The Barn, and Het Apollohuis in the Netherlands, she also curated exhibitions at several New York venues. After living for ten years on the lower East Side in Manhattan she moved to Williamsburg and became involved in the burgeoning art scene, took part in exhibitions such as Salon of the Mating Spiders at Test Site Gallery and the Crest Hardware shows, curated by Gene Pool, and participated in all night event, Organism, at The Mustard Factory. In 1996 Cox/Spelios started an alternative gallery, Flipside, showing innovative local artists over a four year period. Cox is a recipient of a Pollock Kransner and Artist Space grant, and recently she has exhibited her work at venues such as: Yale University School of Art, Sarah Bowen Gallery, Long Island University, Wake Forest University, and Don Soker Gallery, SF.