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 The Stand (Possessing Powers) Strike Fruiting Bodies Rapt Spark Gap At Stake and Rider Archive
News
Upcoming Exhibitions
March 2013 The Stand (Possessing Powers)Second Street Gallery
115 Second Street SE, Charlottesville, VA 22902
November 2013
Solo Exhibition of New Work and Institute for Humanities Visiting Artist
University of Michigan Institute for Humanities Gallery
Ann Arbor, MI
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/humanities
Bio/CV
Lily Cox-Richard grew up on a farm in Virginia. While in college, she took a yearlong leave to ride shotgun with a long haul truck driver, and after finishing her BFA spent a summer selling cowboy boots at Wall Drug, a roadside attraction in South Dakota. After earning an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, Lily was in the CORE Program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. She has been an artist in residence at MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH), Kompact Living Space (Berlin), AREA Gallery (Caguas, Puerto Rico), and Platteforum Arts (Denver, CO).
Lily has received fellowships and grants from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (the Eliza Prize and the Meredith Long Prize) and The American Craft Council. In summer 2009, she received the Milos Chlupác Fellowship to spend the summer living and working in a quarry near Salzburg, Austria to learn stone carving. Recently, she was awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship for her current project, The Stand. Lily is currently an Assistant Professor in the Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, where she is a post-doctoral fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows.
Download PDF of CV
Education
MFA, Sculpture + Extended Media, 2008
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
BFA with High Distinction, Jewelry/Metal Arts, 2001
California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2013 (upcoming) Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2013 The Stand (Possessing Powers), Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2013 The Stand (Possessing Powers), Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
2012 Strike, Site:LAB at Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, MI
2011 Fruiting Bodies, The Poor Farm, Waupaca County, WI
2010 The Stand, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
2008 Spark Gap, Arlington Art Center, Arlington, VA
2008 Spark Gap, Terminal, Richmond, VA
2007 At Stake and Rider, Civilian Art Projects, Washington DC
2007 At Stake and Rider, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
2006 PRE-Fabulous, Archinofsky Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
2005 Magic Moments, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
2003 Altered Perspectives, Platteforum Arts, Denver, CO
2001 Over-the-Road, CCAC North Gallery, Oakland, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? Original Jokes About The Suburban and The Poor Farm by the Artists Who Have Exhibited There, Yale University, School of Art
2010 2010 Core Exhibition, Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX
2010 Santo Foundation Exhibition, Fort Gondo, St Louis, MO
2009 Stone Sculpture Symposium, Steinbruch Kiefer, Fürstenbrunn, Austria
2009 …for lovers, Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Absolutely Modern, Rudolph Projects, Houston, TX
2009 2009 Core Exhibition, Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX
2008 Blitzfunk, Kompact Living Space, Berlin, Germany
2008 Gray Area Stake Out, Crane Building, Philadelphia, PA
2008 FourPlay, AREA Gallery, Caguas, Puerto Rico
2007 Company Picnic, Metro Space Gallery, Richmond, VA
2007 The Commonwealth Bricoleurs, Off Grounds Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
2007 We and Us, Playspace Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Civilian @ G, G Fine Art, Washington, DC
2006 Dynamic Field, Civilian Art Projects, Washington, DC
2006 Debate Team, FAB Gallery at VCU, Richmond, VA
2006 Space Domestic, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA
2005 Medium, Area 405, Baltimore, MD
2005 Right of Way, Archinofsky Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
2004 Transformers, Transformer Gallery, Washington, DC
2003 The Out-of-Towners, Transformer Gallery, Washington, DC
2003 Popular™, WORKS/San Jose, San Jose, CA
2001 Freestyle, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2000 Fuzzy Logic, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Honors & Awards
2012 Smithsonian Artist in Research Fellowship, Washington DC
2012 Faculty Seed Grant, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan
2010-13 University of Michigan Society of Fellows, Ann Arbor, MI
2010 The Long Prize, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX
2009 Eliza Prize, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX
2009 Milos Chlupác Fellowship, Stone Sculpture Symposium, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Art
2008 Eliza Prize, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX
2006-08 Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
2006-08 Graduate Travel and Research Grants to Houston, TX; San Juan, PR; New York, NY; Miami, FL; Washington DC; Philadelphia, PA
2007 Jacob K. Javits Commended Scholar
2006 Graduate Fellowship, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
2006 Carole Stupell Award to support promising artists, American Craft Council
Residencies
2013 Millay Colony Residency, Austerlitz, NY
2011 MacDowell Colony Residency, Peterborough, NH
2008-10 The Core Program, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX
2008 VCU Graduate Fellowship at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
2008 Kompact Living Space Residency, Berlin, Germany
2008 AREA Gallery Residency, Caguas, Puerto Rico
2005 Vermont Studio Center Residency, Fellowship, Johnson, VT
2003 PlatteForum Arts Residency, Denver, CO
Articles and Reviews
Molly Springfield, "Artist Profile: Lily Cox-Richard" The Studio Visit, 2011
Douglas Britt, "Sculptor Wins Long Award" The Houston Chronicle, May 8, 2010
Dominique Nahas, "Relations Matter 2008" MFA Thesis Catalog, VCUarts Publication
Kriston Capps, "Dynamic Field” The Washington City Paper, December 8, 2006
Kriston Capps, "Space Domestic” The Washington City Paper, June 30, 2006
Jessica Dawson, "Space Domestic in McLean” The Washington Post, June 24, 2006
Kristen Peterson, "Making a Scene” The Las Vegas Sun, March 1, 2006
Kate Silver, "Above the Belt and Behind the Wheel” The Las Vegas Weekly, May 26, 2005
Kelle Schillaci, "Road Tripping” Las Vegas City Life, June 9, 2005
Jessica Dawson, "Out of Towners at Transformer” The Washington Post, January 1, 2004
Susan Sobeloff, "Metal to the Middle” Trucker’s News Magazine, June 2002
Publications
Lightning Wireless, CURIOUS Spring 2008, VCUarts Publication
Souvenir, CURIOUS Spring 2007, VCUarts Publication
Lectures, Visits, Activities
2013
The Stand: Possessing Powers, presenter on the session "Sexing Sculpture"
College Art Association Conference, New York, NY
2012
This Nameless Spectacle, Panel Discussion with Y. David Chung, Osman Khan and Amanda Krugliak
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Artist Talk, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington DC
2011
Lecture, Art & Design Perspectives, School of Art & Design
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Visiting Artist, Thesis Exhibition Critiques, Print Media Department
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Guest Juror, BFA Exhibition Awards for School of Art
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Supersaturation of My Mind, Research in Action Colloquium, Department of Dance
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2010
Gallery Conversation with Museum of Fine Arts Houston Curator Emily Neff
Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
Visiting Artist/Guest Critic, School of Art
University of Houston, Houston, TX
Visiting Artist, Guest Reviewer for MFA Thesis exhibitions
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University, St Louis, MO
Visiting Artist/Lecture, Art Department
American University, Washington, DC
2009
Artist Talk, Stone Sculpture Symposium
Salzburg International Summer Academy of Art, Salzburg, Austria
Visiting Artist/Guest Critic, School of Art
University of Houston, Houston, TX
Visiting Artist/Lecture, Visual and Dramatic Arts Department
Rice University, Houston, TX
2008
Lecture, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
2007
Visiting Artist, McIntire Department of Art
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Artist Talk, The Commonwealth Bricoleurs
Off Grounds Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
Artist Talk, At Stake and Rider
Civilian Art Projects, Washington DC
Artist Talk, At Stake and Rider
Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
2006
Artist Talk, Red Roof Bungalow
Civilian Art Projects, Washington, DC
Artist Talk, Small Town/Family Farm
McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, VA
Visiting Artist/Lecture, Department of Fine Arts and Art History
George Washington University, Washington DC
Artist Talk, Over the Road
Archinofsky Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
2005
Artist Talk, Magic Moments
The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN
Artist Talk, Pre-Fabulous
Archinofsky Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
2003
Artist Talk, Altered Perspectives
Platteforum Arts, Denver, CO
Visiting Artist/Artist in Residence
Odyssey Expeditionary Learning Charter School, Denver, CO
Artist Talk, The Out-of-Towners
Transformer Gallery, Washington, DC
Artist Talk, Small Town/Family Farm
WORKS/San Jose, San Jose, CA
StatementFrontier fences, lightning rods, towers, obelisks, and fairy circles. These forms are familiar but they often seem vague, having drifted from their original contexts. I’m trying to understand how these symbols and systems can still be potent, and where this power is located, even as their earlier meanings and functions are obscured.
My sculpture grapples with charging empty spaces, revealing invisible systems, and reaffirming exhausted objects. Spark Gap is a tower made of ladders and a grassy linen rug. The conjunction of this oddly paired transmitter and receiver is manifested in the electrical pattern in the fiber of the rug, marked as if struck by lightning. As I worked on Spark Gap, I amassed a growing collection of salvaged lightning rods in my studio. Although they aren't visibly marked by having been struck by lightning, I imagine that they still hold that charge; that materially they retain residual wisdom of knowing lightning. Visitors to my studio could have easily recalled something about Benjamin Franklin’s invention, yet most of them didn’t recognize these once ubiquitous symbols as lightning rods. This seemed to free them; without immediate recognition, these retired sentries could go on to have a rich life. They can be dowsing rods. They can become objects again.
I’m interested in ways that sculpture has historically served commemorative purposes, from public monument to personal grave marker. In Rapt, stylized shrouds cling to invisible obelisks. Based on 19th-century grave markers, my sculptures are ghosts of these monuments, yet their palpable physicality belies ephemerality. Fruiting Bodies consists of hundreds of cast mushrooms, which I installed in rings around unmarked graves in the Waupaca County Poor Farm cemetery. In nature, fairy rings appear as perfectly arranged individual mushrooms, but are in fact a single organism: an underground mycelium web. In Fruiting Bodies, the cast mushrooms are put up for winter, but the space of the cemetery remains charged with the potential for the mycelium to fruit again in the spring.
In The Stand (Possessing Powers), I explore the history of sculpture as it relates to the myths and allegories used to promote American national and artistic identity in the 19th century. I am creating a series of sculptures based on works by the American neoclassical sculptor, Hiram Powers. In his works, idealized female figures symbolize allegorical themes. Further reducing subtractive sculpture, I am recarving these works without the figures, focusing on the elements that structurally support the figure. By co-opting Powers’ works and making them my own, I aim to complicate the gender and implicit sexuality of both sculpture and sculptor. Reduced to their structural supports, my carved plaster sculptures are both originals and copies, homage and critique, familiar and strange, created in an attempt to see what new content might be revealed when the figure is removed, and how this work can be transformed when it is reimagined through a contemporary sculpture practice.
Press
PublicationLightning Wireless, CURIOUS Spring 2008, VCUarts Publication
Download PDF
Souvenir, CURIOUS Spring 2007, VCUarts Publication
ContactLilyCoxRichard at gmail dot com
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