Nick Cave (b. 1959) confronts violence and trauma with hopeful exuberance in vibrant art that ranges from sculpture and installation to video and performance. The best-known works in his ongoing Soundsuits series are sometimes displayed as static objects, but they come to life when worn for performances. The costumes consume a body in beads, sequins, faux fur, dyed hair, buttons, raffia, colorful fabric, salvaged musical instruments and an eclectic gathering of other materials so that a performer is kaleidoscopically transformed.
The humble and widely familiar materials that comprise the Soundsuits — frequently acquired at flea markets and thrift stores — are elevated in these assemblages, reorganized so that they become something majestic. Cave created the first of the Soundsuits in 1992 in reaction to the Los Angeles police department’s beating of Rodney King the previous year. In dramatically masking a person, the suits can, as Cave puts it, “hide gender, race, class — so you’re forced to look at something without judgment.”
Born in Fulton, Missouri, Cave is now based in Chicago and continues to push into new media as he advocates for social justice and empowerment through his art. His study of fiber arts at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as his summers with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in the early 1980s led to his enduring interest in the body. Whether bringing a percussive performance with dancers and horse-like costumes to Grand Central Terminal in 2013 or filling a gallery at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art with a monumental installation of found objects woven with millions of beads in response to gun violence and the deaths of Black people at the hands of police in 2016, Cave reveals the power of joy through dynamic materials.
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Soundsuit #6 (Performance Art, Artistic Expression, Contemporary Art)
By Nick Cave
Located in Kansas City, MO
Nick Cave Soundsuit #6 Year: 2010 Archival Pigment Print on Premium Rag Size: 17 x 12 in. Edition: 200 Signed by hand on label COA provided Ref.: 924802-2069 Tags: #NickCave #Missou...
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Ode to the Pinching D'Estrées Sisters
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
24 x 36 inches - Edition 1 of 3 with 2 APs Additional framing $525. Shot in 2011 in Amsterdam Inspired by an anonymous artist of the Fontainebleau School’s Presumed Portrait of Ga...
Archival Pigment
Ode to Titian's Venus of Urbino
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
16 x 24 inches - Edition 2 of 5 with 2 APs framing is an additional $420. Photography and acting are kindred spirits in the new series by e2 (Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien)....
Archival Pigment
Ode to Dyce's Paolo and Francesca II
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
Edition 2 of 7 with 2 APs Framing is an additional $265. Photography and acting are kindred spirits in the new series by e2 (Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien). Their current ph...
Archival Pigment
Ode to Petrus Christus' Portrait of a Woman
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
36 x 27 inches - Edition 2 of 3 with 2 APs framing is an additional $525. Photography and acting are kindred spirits in the new series by e2 (Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien)....
ABS, Archival Pigment
Portrait of a White Woman
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
36 x 24 inches - Edition 1 of 3 with 2 APs framing is an additional $525. Shot in 2011 in New Orleans Inspired by Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s Portrait of a Black Woman, 1800 Phot...
Archival Pigment
Ode to Vermeer's Woman with a Pearl Necklace
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
16 x 13 inches - Edition 4 of 7 with 2 APs framing is an additional $265. Photography and acting are kindred spirits in the new series by e2 (Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien)....
Archival Pigment
Ode to Manet's Olympia
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
27 x 36 inches - Edition 1 of 3 with 2 APs framing is an additional $525. Shot in New Orleans in 2011, background illustrated by Marco Ventura Inspired by Manet’s Olympia...
Archival Pigment
Ode to Goya's Maya
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
24 x 36 inches - Edition 1 of 3 with 2 APs framing is an additional $525. Photography and acting are kindred spirits in the new series by e2 (Elizabeth Kleinveld and Epaul Julien)....
Archival Pigment
Ode to Velasquez's Venus at her Mirror
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
10.5 x 16 inches - Edition 2 of 7 with 2 APs framing is an additional $265. Shot in Amsterdam in 2011 Inspired by Velasquez’ Venus Looking in Her Mirror, 1647-51 Photography and ...
Archival Pigment
Ode to Courbet's The Sleepers
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
Edition 1 of 7 with 2 APs framing is an additional $265. Photography and acting are kindred spirits in the ongoing series by E2 - Kleinveld & Julien, entitled In Empathy We Trust....
Archival Pigment
Remaking Marat
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
16 x 10.5 inches - Edition 4 of 7 with 2 APs framing is an additional $265. Shot in New Orleans in 2011 Inspired by David’s The Death of Marat, 1793 ...
Archival Pigment
Ode to Van Eyck's Arnolfini Marriage
By E2 - Kleinveld & Julien
Located in New Orleans, LA
30.75 x 24 inches - Edition 3 of 5 with 2 APs Already Framed Shot in 2012 in Amsterdam Inspired by Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Marriage, 1434 Photography and acting are kindred spirits ...
Archival Pigment
NICK CAVE DOUBLE SIDED, INFLATABLE PUNCHING BAG
By Nick Cave
Located in New York, NY
Standing a full five-feet tall and donning a multi-colored human-hair Soundsuit on one side and a swirling sequined Soundsuit on the other is every kids perfect sparring partner. Fil...
Plastic