Artists Space

Unnaturally Yours:
Selected by Willie Cole

January 20 – March 16, 1996

Artists Space's tradition of artists selecting artists continues with Unnaturally Yours. This multi media exhibition selected by sculptor Willie Cole has been drawn largely from The Irving Sandler Artists File. Willie Cole exhibited his own work in Selections from the Artists File in 1989.

A sculpture resembling a pair of lungs installed on a white background. A stick covered with leaves forms the sculpture
Alejandro Berlin, Artificial Spring, 1995. Balloons, artificial leaves, accordion bellows, wood, motor. [A sculpture resembling a pair of lungs installed on a white background. A stick covered with leaves forms the sculpture's treachea-like structure, while two bundles of uninflated, pink balloons form two lung-like shapes.]

Willie Cole saw in the work of each artist the natural elements (air, water, fire and earth) utilized as a point of departure for further investigations. Whether swelling, gurgling, blooming or radiating, the artist attempts to express a personal ideology by manipulating the tensions between nature and artifice.

Two sculptures installed in a gallery space with wooden flooring. A large sculpture consisting of a suspended, orange tarp pulled in different directions by various wires sits in the cetner of the room. Small, tan mounds and a white side table are arranged around the orange tarp. On the gallery wall behind the large sculpture hangs a smaller sculpture that resembles a set of pink lungs.
Unnaturally Yours: Selected by Willie Cole. Installation view, Artists Space, 1996. [Two sculptures installed in a gallery space with wooden flooring. A large sculpture consisting of a suspended, orange tarp pulled in different directions by various wires sits in the cetner of the room. Small, tan mounds and a white side table are arranged around the orange tarp. On the gallery wall behind the large sculpture hangs a smaller sculpture that resembles a set of pink lungs.]

Unnaturally Yours: Selected by Willie Cole Artists Statements

Unnaturally Yours: Selected by Willie Cole Press Release