Marlborough is pleased to present Shapes of Shade, which brings together a dozen new embroidered canvases exploring a spiritual dimension of geometric abstraction.
These compositions, built from the rudimentary shapes of sacred geometry and painstakingly sewn from spools of brightly-hued thread, address both pure design and the meditative, mantra-like implications of a repeated action. A handcrafted quality underscores their humanity and the love-labor of their creation while adding dynamism through the laid-back order of the surfaces.
There is a social component to Cox’s work as well—at times even a succinct message that serves as inspiration. For example, Truvada’s Triangle takes it’s title from the first FDA-approved drug intended for HIV prevention. The artist implies that the topic of HIV/AIDS has been lost in a Bermuda Triangle of denial and ignorance despite a spike in new rates of infection. Other works, like Digging for Diamonds in the Disco and Egyptian Boy Scout , take a lighter tone and emphasize a playful, punning spirit that works alongside the more topical subjects.
Taken together, these works emphasize the struggle and pleasure of the creative process, the exuberant power of color and line, and underscore the ways in which we invoke humor, mythology and the supernatural to help us cope with the complexity of being alive.
Shapes of Shade is Tony Cox’s first solo exhibition with Marlborough. Previous solo exhibitions include Incense, Fuse Gallery, New York, NY (2011); White Trash Mystic, 211 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY (2010); and Too Blonde to be Catalan, FD Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (2007). Notable group exhibitions include ABSOLUT Open Canvas, sponsored by Absolut, Brooklyn, NY (2013); Material, Salon 94, New York, NY; More and Different Flags, Marlborough, New York, NY (2012); and Green Honey, Ramiken Crucible, New York, NY (2010). Cox currently lives and works in Woodstock, New York.
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