Singing to the Difference: An Examination of Surface Strategies 2024
Cheryl Coon
Cheryl Coon received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and BAs in Art & French from Cal Poly Humboldt. She studied art history at the Université de Paris XIII, Panthéon-Sorbonne. She has had exhibitions at the de Saisset Museum, Triton Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Rosa, State University of New York SUNY, Morris Graves Museum, Euphrat Museum, and San Francisco State University Art Gallery, and internationally at the The Rooms Gallery in Canada, OBERFETT Gallery, Hamburg, Germany, the Polymer Culture Factory, Katlamaja, Estonia and the Galerii Y, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia and the Physics Room in Christschurch, New Zealand. Awards include the Carl Djerassi Honorary Fellowship from the Djerassi Artist Residency program, a sculpture fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center, an artist residency at the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland, and an artist residency at Villa Montalvo.
I am interested in microscopic organisms, such as cells, spores, pollen, viruses and minute creatures that have the power to affect our physical well-being. My work is also influenced by spending time on the ocean observing life floating in the water, seen over many years of kayaking and fishing in different bodies of water, including the Galápagos, Australia, Bali, the Caribbean, Alaska, Nova Scotia, California, Sea of Cortez and Baja. The most recent sculptures investigate the attraction/repulsion and the extreme beauty of natural organisms that can be both beautiful and quite deadly. I am fascinated by all types of microorganisms – including diatoms, protozoa, plankton, fungi and bacteria – that demonstrate infinite variations of natural geometry. As abstractions of biological life forms, the sculptures are indicative of many recurring patterns in nature – such as shells, spikes, thorns or fish spines – which are used by organisms for protection – to repel intruders in a hostile environment.
White Diatom
zip ties, steel
66” x 28” x 28”
POR
Cyclotellas-Estrellas
zip ties
Wall installation dimensions variable
144” x 120” x 14”
(Individual pieces range from 20” x 20” x 8” to 14” x 14” x 6”)
POR