Gregory Coates facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gregory Coates
|
|
|---|---|
Coates in 2011
|
|
| Born | March 5, 1961 |
| Alma mater | Corcoran School of Art, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture |
| Style | Social abstraction three-dimensional art video performance |
Gregory Coates, born on March 5, 1961, is an African-American artist. He is famous for his unique art style called "social abstraction." This means his art often explores ideas about society and people's lives.
Coates creates art in many ways. He makes sculptures that hang on walls or stand freely. He also creates large art installations and public sculptures for everyone to see. Sometimes, he even uses video and performance art to share his ideas.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Gregory Coates was born in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 1961. He grew up in the Carver Langston neighborhood. This area is in the northeast part of the city.
Gregory was the oldest of eight children. He had six sisters and one brother. His parents worked hard to support their large family.
Coates studied art at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. He attended from 1980 to 1982. Later, in 1990, he also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
His Art Career
Moving to Germany
In the mid-1980s, Gregory Coates moved his art studio to Düsseldorf, Germany. While living there, he saw big changes happening. He experienced events leading up to the fall of the Iron Curtain. This was a time when countries in Eastern Europe became free from Soviet control. These changes had a big impact on his art.
Returning to the U.S.
After returning from Europe, Coates started living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In the late 1980s, he met another artist named Alvin D. Loving. Coates was mainly painting pictures of people at that time. Loving encouraged him to try making art from different objects.
This was a big moment for Coates. He started making "assemblage" art. This means putting together various items to create a new artwork. This helped him grow as an artist.
Art in South Africa
In the late 1990s, Coates had an artist residency in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1996, he saw the effects of the end of apartheid. Apartheid was a system of unfair racial separation. He also saw a lot of poverty there.
This experience changed his art again. He felt it was important to use recycled materials in his work. He saw how much waste there was in rich countries. He also saw the economic problems in Cape Town.
So, Coates began using almost only recycled items. He used things like feathers, bike tubes, cardboard, crumpled papers, and even dirt. He also used vinyl records and the heads of push brooms. He gives his artworks interesting titles. These titles often talk about important topics. He explores issues like Cold War politics, poverty, racism, and Black culture.
Where His Art Is Kept
Gregory Coates' artworks are part of many important collections. These include:
- Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art
- Georgia Museum of Art
- The Studio Museum in Harlem
- Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan.
A very large artwork by Coates is in the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In February 2011, Coates also worked on an art project in Verbier, Switzerland. It was part of a series called "Go Tell It on the Mountain: Towards a New Monumentalism."
Awards He Has Won
Gregory Coates has received several important awards for his art. These include grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation. He also received an emergency grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation.
