Podcast Episode 01: Artist Willie Cole: Newark Is Always On My Mind
I interviewed the internationally famous artist, Willie Cole, in his studio in the winter of 2021.
Willie and I go back to the late 60’s when we attended Arts High School in Newark, NJ. Arts was the first visual and performing arts high school in the country. Jazz innovator, Wayne Shorter, great song stylist, Sarah Vaughan were just some of the famous graduates who proceeded us there. I was two grades ahead of Willie and our friendship actually started fairly early in our careers after college.
Willie Cole is a noted contemporary American sculptor, printer, conceptual and visual artist. Cole is best known for assembling and transforming ordinary domestic and used objects such as irons, ironing boards, high-heeled shoes, hair dryers, bicycle parts and other discarded appliances and hardware, into imaginative and powerful works of art.
Mining his own African American heritage, Cole creates work that celebrates African Art and Culture.
In November 2020 the globally famous fashion icon, Rei Kawakubo, always looking to the arts, called on Willie for a collaboration for the Fall Winter 2021 men's collection of Comme des Garçons Homme Plus.
Willie’s artwork is found in numerous private and public collections and museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Newark Museum of Art.
Education: BFA, The School of Visual Arts, New York, The Art Students League, New York, Arts High School, Newark, NJ.
Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?
Above: Works by Willie Cole
1. Willie Cole, Street Dragon, 2018
2. Willie Cole, Between Body and Soul, 2018
3. Willie Cole, Woman in Heels, 2019
4. Willie Cole, Sunflower, 1994
5. Willie Cole, Wind Mask East, 1990
6. Willie Cole, Man Spirit Mask, 1999
7./8. Willie Cole/Rei Kawakubo, collaboration for the Fall Winter 2021 men's collection of Comme des Garçons Homme Plus.
9. Willie Cole, The Sole Sitter, 2013