Tony Cox

Shadow Bathing

Jun 20 — Aug 9, 2019
New York, Chelsea

“The answer to the problem of suffering is not away from the problem but in it. The inevitability of pain will not be met by deadening sensitivity but by increasing it, by exploring and feeling out the manner in which the natural organism itself wants to react and which its innate wisdom has provided.”

― Alan W. Watts, Nature, Man and Woman

For his exhibition Shadow Bathing, multidisciplinary artist Tony Cox will present a series of all-new, large-scale, hand-embroidered abstractions on acrylic-coated canvas. Combining gender and sexual politics with the post-minimal concerns of material and process, these works occupy a space between painting and sculpture. Though, as a self-taught artist who sharply eschews formal pigeon-holing, Cox works intuitively and irreverently and his process moves from the inside out rather than moving from enveloping defining categories, back in.

Starting with the back of a canvas, or what he calls the “subconscious B-side,” Cox begins the “life of a line”—a base-drawing that traces a series of lines and gestures that evolve to suggest topographies of body and place. Eventually, the canvas is laid across two sawhorses and the artist works from below, painstakingly puncturing the underside with sewing needles, sometimes hundreds of thousands of times until a legible pattern reveals itself on the face. Cox considers the life of a line a transcendent cycle indexed with pain and progress—literal puncture wounds and ultimately the manifestation of a formal construct.

An intimate and often painful practice, Cox’s labor is extreme. A single vertical patch of threadwork measuring 3 x 64 inches contains 44,000 individual handmade “psycho stitches”—a term coined by the artist to reference psychotherapy and the general psychosis of extreme repetitive action. In August 2017, as he set out to make this show, Cox’s hands were temporarily paralyzed by a late-stage Lyme disease diagnosis. This set into motion a breakdown that was compounded by a brutal assault, which came shortly after recovery from his Lyme symptoms, and left him with a broken hand and the continued inability to make his work.

The period of induced isolation and relative inactivity that followed ultimately lead to deepened spiritual and psychotherapeutic investigations. Cox’s longstanding interest in Jungian philosophy became the backbone of these expanded inquiries and each of the works in this exhibition reference the archetypes and concepts central to Jungian psychology. Marathon Mountain, the final work produced in the series, is the exception, as it stands as a tribute to the culmination of Cox’s nearly two-year-long journey.

Tony Cox, born in 1975 in Louisville, KY, lives and works in Mount Tremper, NY. Cox is the lead member of the performance project LOBOTOMAXX along with artists Nathan Carter and Matthew Ronay. He is also the founder of Club Rhubarb, an artist-run curatorial platform that operates out of a storied loft in Chinatown, NYC. Its inaugural group exhibition Digging For Diamonds in the Disco occurred in 2018 as a means of exercising creative agency while Cox was unable to make art due to illness. The second exhibition, a solo show by the San Francisco based painter Joe Roberts, will be presented in the fall.

—Nichole Caruso

 

Dedicated to Anna Elizabeth Warren, Benjamin Cho, and Lily Wheelwright.

Works

Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 1.1 pierre le hors
Installation View. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, bobo fetish, 2017, thread, acrylic, fabric, poly stuffing, cording on canvas in oak frame, 31 x 25 in., 78 x 65.3 cm, cnon 61.475
BoBo Fetish, 2017, thread, acrylic, fabric, poly stuffing, cording on canvas in walnut frame, 30 3/4 × 25 3/4 in., 78 × 65.3 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, memory gongs, 2016, thread, fabric, poly stuffing, acrylic on canvas in oak frame, diameter 24 in., 60.96 cm, cnon 58.476
Memory Gongs, 2016, thread, fabric, poly stuffing, acrylic on canvas in walnut frame, diameter: 24 in., 60.96 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 3 pierre le hors
Installation View. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, blowing clouds, 2019, thread, acrylic, lambskin, suede, twisted lip cord, poly stuffing on canvas in oak frame, 47 1 2 x 37 1 2 in., 120.65 x 95.25 cm, cnon 61.478
Blowing Clouds, 2019, thread, acrylic, lambskin, suede, twisted lip cord, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 47 1/2 × 37 1/2 in., 120.7 × 95.3 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, uni corned horned, 2019, thread, acrylic, metallic leather, pony skin, twisted lip cord, poly stuffing on canvas in oak frame, 49 1 2 x 62 1 2 in., 125.73 x 158.75 cm, cnon 61.483
Uni Corned Horned, 2019, thread, acrylic, metallic leather, pony skin, twisted lip cord, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 49 1/2 × 62 1/2 in., 125.7 × 158.8 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 4 pierre le hors
Installation View. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 5 pierre le hors
Installation View. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, shadow taser, 2019, thread, acrylic, suede, lamb leather, twisted lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in oak frame, 73 1 2 x 57 1 2 in., 186.69 x 146.05 cm, cnon 61.484
Shadow Taser, 2019, thread, acrylic, suede, lamb leather, twisted lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 73 1/2 × 57 1/2 in., 186.7 × 146.1 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, armed in arms, 2019, thread, acrylic, lamb leather, twisted in lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in oak frame, 62 1 2 x 49 1 2 in., 158.75 x 125.73 cm, cnon 61.480
Armed in Arms, 2019, thread, acrylic, lamb leather, twisted in lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 62 1/2 × 49 1/2 in., 158.8 × 125.7 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 6 pierre le hors
Installation View. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 7 pierre le hors
Installation View. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, bottle of blueballs, 2018, thread, acrylic, suede, lamb leather, twisted lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in oak frame, 73 1 2 x 57 1 2 in., 186.69 x 146.05 cm, cnon 61.493
Bottle of Blueballs, 2018, thread, acrylic, suede, lamb leather, twisted lipcord, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 73 1/2 × 57 1/2 in., 186.7 × 146.1 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, flip fucking, 2019, thread, acrylic, pony skin, suede, twisted lip cord, leather on canvas in oak frame, 50 1 2 x 37 1 2 in., 134.6 x 104.1 cm, cnon 61.477
Flip Fucking, 2019, thread, acrylic, pony skin, suede, twisted lip cord, leather on canvas in walnut frame, 50 1/2 × 37 1/2 in., 128.3 × 95.3 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.
Cox, marathon mountain (view 1), 2019, thread, acrylic, lambskin, pony skin, leather, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 81 1:2 x 65 1:2 in., 207.01 x 166.37 cm,  cnon 61.481 pierre le hors
Marathon Mountain, 2019, thread, acrylic, lambskin, pony skin, leather, poly stuffing on canvas in walnut frame, 65 1/2 × 81 1/2 in., 166.4 × 207 cm. Photo: Pierre Le Hors.

Press

Cox, uni corned horned, 2019, thread, acrylic, metallic leather, pony skin, twisted lip cord, poly stuffing on canvas in oak frame, 49 1 2 x 62 1 2 in., 125.73 x 158.75 cm, cnon 61.483
Cox, shadow bathing. marlborough new york installation view 4 pierre le hors