BIO
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Carolyn Cole is an artist for whom painting is a necessity, an outlet for her emotions. Painting acts as a conduit for her energy and passion for life.
Cole is obsessed with the act of painting. She took her first painting classes during college and it changed the course of her life completely. She realized that making art would be a difficult life financially, but she was driven. Even during many years of hardship, she continued to make art daily. Nothing stopped her from creating. Now her paintings are collected throughout the world and she has exhibited and been collected by museums and art galleries nationally.
Her abstractions play to the senses and the heart. She deploys color, mass, composition, and line to command attention, mesmerize, and draw us into places of her own making. Once there, we are allowed to wander at will. Here, we are left to discover the incidents and clues she leaves behind to tantalize, provoke and intrigue.
At first glance, Cole’s works appear to be simply paint on canvas. A longer look reveals that they are composed through a purposeful, multi-phased process that includes collage, painting, and drawing. In her latest series, she builds up the canvas with pages from old art and architecture books. She creates an overall grid of lines and rectangles with these book pages, giving her a painting surface that is both smooth to the touch and rich to the eye. The structure of the final work is already invested in the prepared canvas. The underlying architecture provides the essential dimension, strength and balance to Cole’s work.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 Westbrook Modern Galleries, Carmel, California
2019 Gruen Galleries, Chicago, Illinois
2018 Menerbe, France Artist Residency
2018 Gallery 903, Portland, Oregon
2017 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2017 Annie Meyer Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2015 Aberson Exhibits, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2015 Aberson Exhibits, Tulas, Oklahoma
2015 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2015 Portland International Airport, Portland, Oregon
2014 Gruen Galleries, Chicago, IL
2014 SAM Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
2014 Washington County Museum, Hillsboro, Oregon
2013 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2013 Mark Gallery, Englewood, New Jersey
2012 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2012 Gallery KH, Chicago, Illinois
2012 Aberson Exhibits, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2011 Gallery KH, Chicago, Illinois
2011 Gallery IMA, Seattle, Washington
2011 The William and Joseph Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 The William and Joseph Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2010 Gallery IMA, Seattle, Washington
2010 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2009 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2009 The William and Joseph Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2009 Gallery KH, Chicago, Illinois
2008 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2008 Mary Bell Galleries, Chicago, Illinois
2008 The William and Joseph Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2006 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2006 Davis and Cline Galleries, Ashland, Oregon
2006 Cohen Rese Gallery, San Francisco, California
2006 “Infusion 3”, Deloney Newkirk Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2005 Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2004 Don O’Melveny Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2003 Highlands Sculpture Gallery, Carmel, California
2003 Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2002 Mary Bell Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2002 Cohen Rese Gallery, San Francisco, California
2001 Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2000 Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1998 Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1997 Cabell Gallery, Catlin-Gable School, Portland, Oregon
1996 Spokane Performing Arts Center, Spokane, WA
1996 American Institute of Architects, Portland, OR
1991 55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York, New York
1987 Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1985 Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1981 Fountain Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1979 Arts Place Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1979 Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1978 Willamette University, Salem, Oregon
1977 Anne Hughes Gallery, Portland, Oregon
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2014 “Abstraction,” Woolff Gallery, London, UK
2013 “Artist to Artist” collaborative four-artist installation, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
2013 Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
2013 KM Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California
2012 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, New York
2011 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, New York
2010 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, New York
2009 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, New York
2009 Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New York, New York
2009 Gallery IMA, Seattle, Washington
2008 Red Dot Art Fair, Miami, Florida
2008 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, New York
2008 Art in Embassies Exhibition, American Embassy, Doha, Qatar
2007 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, New York
2007 Red Dot Art Fair, New York, New York
2006 Mary Bell Galleries, Chicago, Illinois
2006 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY
2005 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY
2004 AAF Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY
2004 “Gesturing,” Butters Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2004 “Abstracte Elegant,” Don O’Melveny Gallery Los Angeles, California
2003 Cohen Rese Gallery, San Francisco, California
2003 San Francisco International Art Fair, San Francisco, California
2002 San Francisco International Art Fair, San Francisco, California
2001 “Text,” Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2000 Mary Bell Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1999 “Art Slate 1998,” Condon, Oregon
1999 Ballard Fetherston Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1992 Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Annual Exhibit, Brooklyn, New York
1991 Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Annual Exhibit, Brooklyn, New York
1990 “Ten Downtown,” Artists in General Gallery, New York, New York
1989 La Mama Galleria, New York, New York
1988 “The All Male Feminist Show,” New Waterfront Museum, New York, New York
1989 “Curator’s Choice,” White Columns, New York, New York
1988 Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park Annual Outdoor Sculpture Show, New York, NY
1987 “Art, Bridges, Space,” New York, New York
1986 “Ten on Eight,” New York, New York
1986 “On the Edge,” Temporary Edge Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
1986 Donald Wren Gallery, New York, New York
1985 Ninth Annual Small Works Show, New York University, New York, New York
1984 “Seven New York Artists-New Abstraction,” R Street Gallery, Washington D.C.
1983 “On, Of and About Paper,” Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
1982 Brooklyn Museum Annual Exhibit, Brooklyn, New York
1980 “Paper Works,” traveling exhibit to six Western States
1979 “Works on Paper,” White Gallery, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
1978 “Five Artists of Oregon,” Corvallis Art Center, Corvallis, Oregon
1978 Invitational Exhibit, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington
1977 “Mixed Media and Technique,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
1977 “Artists of Oregon 1977,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
1977 “In Touch: Nature, Ritual and Sensuous Art from the Northwest, Portland Center for Visual Art, Portland, Oregon
1977 “60th Annual Exhibition,” Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
1977 “Contemporary Issues: Works on Paper by Women,” Los Angeles, California
1976 “Artists of Oregon-Paperwork II,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon