Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to exhibit Recent Soundsuits, Nick Cave's second solo exhibition at the gallery. A diverse selection of the highly imaginative, mixed-media, wearable sculptures, Soundsuits, for which Cave has become well-known, are on view through February 7th.

A row of suits of woven hair in vibrant colors, from fluorescent orange and lime green to royal blue, lines one wall in the back gallery. These creatures with their amorphous and undefined bodies are apparitions hovering between a human form and an abstract painting. A U-shaped runway situated opposite these figures features another diverse group of Soundsuits, some with sleeker, formfitting bodysuits comprised of found fabrics and materials including buttons, sequins and beads that are combined and sewn together into intricate patterns and designs. Metal armatures adorned with a range of objects including painted ceramic birds, flowers, brass ornaments, and strands of beads, top the figures and serve as headdresses that activate the sculpture and provide a visual and textural contrast to the soft bodysuit.

Soundsuits, named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn, are as reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture. A multitude of references bring to mind not only disparate cultural traditions but they also highlight Cave's diverse background and artistic training. Cave studied and danced with Alvin Ailey and created his own clothing line which he featured in a shop he opened and ran for ten years. He is as interested in fashion and cultural, ritualistic and ceremonial concepts as he is in politics, a domain that has always been part of his work as demonstrated by acts of collecting and reconfiguring elements and concealing the identity, race, and gender, of those who wear his suits. Rendering them faceless and anonymous the suits help these individuals transcend the political realm in order to enter the realm of dreams and fantasy.

Here Cave also presents a number of new sculptures that break from his traditional form, the Soundsuit. Comprised of recognizable ready-made objects these sculptures are overt political statements in
themselves.

A major traveling solo exhibition of Cave's work will open at Yerba Buena Art Center, San Francisco, in March. Cave's work is concurrently on view at the Rubell Family Collection as part of the ?30 Americans?. He has mounted other solo exhibitions, at venues including the Chicago Cultural Center, IL (2006), the Jacksonville Museum of art, FL, the Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, FL (2007), and has participated in numerous group exhibitions including Freestyle Frequency, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2005). Cave has received several prestigious awards including, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2008), Artadia Award (2006) the Joyce Award (2006), Creative Capital Grants (2002, 2004 and 2005), and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2001). Cave, who studied fiber arts at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Fashion Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For further information please contact Jack Shainman Gallery at (212) 645-1707.

Check out this review from the New York Times

NICK CAVE

Recent Soundsuits

Jack Shainman

513 West 20th Street, Chelsea

Through Feb. 7

Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits” — elaborately ornamented, wearable sculptures — have won this artist and former Alvin Ailey dancer a devoted following. In his second solo at the Shainman gallery, Mr. Cave plays up the fashion element of the Soundsuits by installing them on a U-shaped runway.

In each suit the head is completely covered by a torpedo-shaped hood or a cluster of found objects: metal spinning tops, ceramic figurines. Buttons, beads and a garment district’s worth of sequined trimmings add to the Mardi Gras aesthetic. In a welcome departure, Mr. Cave also introduces dyed and woven hair to his repertory of embroidered, crocheted, bedazzled and otherwise adorned textiles. The Soundsuits in this grouping look as if a Color Field painter had crossed paths with Sasquatch.

Mr. Cave’s new sculptures in the front gallery incorporate vintage figurines that might be categorized as “black memorabilia.” Each features a statue of a smiling minstrel or servant, topped by a treelike metal armature adorned with birds, flowers and other tchotchkes. The wall-based works in the second gallery fare slightly better, if only because they are less formulaic. Still, the figures in this series — some from carnival games — have a life of their own, and are not easily subsumed into assemblages.

The Soundsuits are more optimistic creations, sometimes interpreted as uniforms for a postracial utopia. In any case, these profusely decorated objects have ceremonial and mood-enhancing properties. KAREN ROSENBERG