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Nick Cave Art

American, b. 1959

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)
Soundsuit #6 (Performance Art, Artistic Expression, Contemporary Art)

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...

Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Cave Art

Materials

Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

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Nick Cave 1959 American art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Nick Cave 1959 American art available for sale on 1stDibs. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Mary Ellen Johnson, Winslow Homer, and Frank Weston Benson.

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