CARA COLE b. Toronto, Canada EDUCATION University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada SELECTED RECENT EXHIBITIONS 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2004 2003
An Immortality of Bliss (Solo Exhibition), Becker Galleries, Vancouver, Canada ARTIFACT, Contact Photography Festival 2011, Alison Milne Gallery, Toronto SPLASH: Beautiful, Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Lurid (Solo Exhibition), Arin Contemporary Art, Laguna Beach, CA Group Exhibition, Becker Galleries, Vancouver, Canada Opening Exhibition, Becker Galleries, Vancouver, Canada Nevada Now II, Humboldt Gallery, *Curated by Diane Deming for the Nevada Museum of Art, Winnemucca, NE Life in Slow Motion (Solo Exhibition), University of Wisconson Gallery, Madison, WI Brutal Instincts (Solo Exhibition), Dust Contemporary Art, Las Vegas, NE Life in Slow Motion (Solo Exhibition), Peppers Fine Art Gallery, Redlands, CA Cara Cole & Kung Jeon (Two-Person Exhibition), Dust Contemporary Art, Las Vegas The Sky Above, The Mud Below (Solo Exhibition), Chidlaw Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
STATEMENT In Gods and Heroes, I appropriate from a wide variety of scientific textbooks. I cannibalize and collage this existing imagery, to create stark visual poetry out of unlikely combinations of scientific “specimens.� The resulting narratives are unsettlingly intimate. Chidren, naked and isolated on fields of black, move toward or shiver away from aggressive natural elements. The children are frozen in dances of fear and fascination. These dramas unfold on a heroic scale. This body of work evolved out of he mingling of two streams of thought. First is the recollection of greek myths which explained the workings of the universe, particularly tales in which Gods preyed on mortals, seducing or attacking humans in the guise of natural elements: a swan, a heavy mist, a shower of gold. The second is the inspiration of modern scientific texts, in which every conceivable aspect of the universe -- from the most minute biological entity to the most colossal cosmological event -- is meticulously, obsessively and tirelessly documented. Both creative endeavors (the mythological and the scientific) are driven by a most passionate human desire, to unlock the mysteries of creation and destruction, growth and decay, life and death, so we will no longer be forced to surrender to elemental forces beyond our control and have ultimate control over our own destinies.