Pamela Council

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Pamela Council
Born1986 (age 36–37)
Southampton, New York, U.S.
EducationWilliams College,
Columbia University
Websitewww.pamelacouncil.com

Pamela Council (born 1986) is an American multidisciplinary artist and educator.[1] She produces sculpture, textiles, print-based media and performance art, her work addressing Black American culture, and often features humor.[2]

Council's work has been reviewed in Artforum, Artnet, the New York Times, and Hyperallergic, among other places, and she herself has been featured in the New York Times.

Early life and education

Pamela Council was born in 1986 in Southampton, New York[3] into a Black family. She completed her secondary education at Stuyvesant High School in 2003 and attended Williams College,[1] from 2003 to 2007, where she received a Bachelor of Arts and majored in Studio Art and minored in Mathematics.

Council attended Columbia University, from 2012 to 2014, where she received a Master of Fine Arts, and graduated with honors.[4]

Early career

Council was a teaching assistant for the majority of her time at Columbia, teaching both graduate and undergraduate classes in sculpture and 3D building. After graduating, she worked as a product developer at German multinational brand Adidas, then later, briefly,[2] at Reebok.[5] Council considered a career as a sneaker designer.[2]

Career

Council works primarily in sculpture, textiles, print-based media and performance art.[4] Her work has been commissioned and exhibited through the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Williams College Museum of Art, Southampton Historical Museum, and Kianga Ellis Projects, among others. In 2015 she participated in the collective, Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter, and completed a residency at MANA BSMT in Jersey City, New Jersey[4] in 2016.[6] That year exhibited in "March Madness," at Fort Gansevoort, and "Present Futures," at Denny Dimin Gallery, both in New York: The latter would eventually represent her through 2021.[2][7] She also presented work in the group exhibition, "i found god in myself," at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.[4]

2017 marked Council's solo exhibition "Tenderheaded," at Rush Arts Gallery in New York City as well as participation in a second group show at Fort Gansevoort, "March Madness II," and her first at Portland, Oregon's Center for Contemporary Art & Culture. The next year saw her presenting Red Drink: A BLAXIDERMY Juneteenth Offering, at Stardust Arts in Houston, and in group shows at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and the Luminary in St. Louis.[4]

The next year she was a Resident Artist at both Red Bull Arts, in Detroit, and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, in Omaha, Nebraska exhibiting a solo work at the former and performing a new work, Peppermint Petty, at the latter.[4]

Council’s art reflects the complex relationships of cultural and individual identities by immersing the viewer in a “sensory experience”. She draws on inspiration from Americana, physical beauty, and consumerism, juxtaposing her own materials with mass-produced objects.[8][9]

Notable work

Flo-Jo World Record Nails (2012)

This work incorporates a 1:100-scale replica made of 2,000 acrylic fingernails (as well as nail polish and rhinestones) in the shape of a 200m running track, inspired by the nails Florence Griffith Joyner wore during the 1988 Summer Olympics when she set the 200m world record.[1] Council explores themes of feminism, beauty, and consumerism in Flo-Jo World Record Nails, identifying the contradictory ties Black women have to their physical beauty and the spending large sums of money on beauty products while earning on average less money than members of other ethnic groups in the United States. Artforum called it a "highlight" in a group show in Manhattan it was in that also included the work of Cindy Sherman, Renée Cox, Collier Schorr, and Martha Rosler.[10]

A Fountain for Survivors (2021)

An 18-foot-tall fountain inside of a dome and covered with more than 350,000 acrylic fingernails, this work was on display in Times Square in New York City in 2021 as a tribute to the survivors of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[9][11] Commissioned by Times Square Arts, the public art arm of the Times Square Alliance, it was reviewed in the New York Times, among other places, and garnered Council a feature in the Times as well as an interview about her nails in Vogue magazine.[5][11] Council told Michella Oré of the latter publication “I chose acrylic nails for the surface because, for me, they are a protective style and feel like bad bitch armor.... I think for a lot of survivors, you’re looking for protection, you’re looking for something that shields you.” Survivors of any type were invited inside to make a wish at the fountain while experiencing a “quiet moment within the very busy area of Times Square.”[5]

Selected awards

2022
Bicentennial Medal for Exceptional Alumni Achievement, Williams College

2021
City Artist Corps Grants, NYFA, New York, NY
Creative Catalyst Award, City of Newark, Newark

2020
Harpo Foundation Grants for Visual Artists
Newark Artist Accelerator, Project For Empty Space, Newark
Creative Catalyst Award, City of Newark, Newark
Grant recipient, Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Grant recipient, Artist Relief

2019
MacArthur Travel Grant, MacDowell Colony
Artist in Marketplace Fellowship, Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Bronx[4]

Personal life

Council lived for a time in Bronxville, New York and currently resides and works in New York City and Newark, New Jersey.[3] She identifies as Queer (uses they/them pronouns[11]) and disabled.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c Haynes, Clarity (2020-12-02). ""I Call It Blaxidermy": Pamela Council on Their Art and Aesthetic". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  2. ^ a b c d Soboleva, Ksenia M. (2021-10-18). "Pamela Council Looks to Black Vernacular Culture to Expose Social Inequality". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  3. ^ a b "Times Square Arts: Pamela Council". Times Square Arts NYC. Retrieved 2021-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "CV". pamelacouncil.com. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Oré, Michella (2021-10-26). "Nail Files: Artist Pamela Council on Why Nails Are the Ultimate "Bad Bitch Armor"". Vogue. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  6. ^ "Pamela Council - AFRICANAH.ORG". AFRICANAH.ORG. 2015-12-10. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  7. ^ "Exhibited Artists". dennydimingallery.com.
  8. ^ Jurek, Irena. "The Construction of the Self and the American Dream: An Interview with Pamela Council". Arcade Project Zine.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b Cascone, Sarah (2021-08-18). "Times Square Is Getting Its First Fountain—and It's a Monumental Public Artwork Covered in 400,000 Acrylic Nails". Artnet News. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  10. ^ Vogel, Wendy (Spring 2017). "Critics' Picks NEW YORK March Madness FORT GANSEVOORT". Artforum. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  11. ^ a b c Garcia, Sandra E. (2021-10-26). "Acrylic Nails Get the Fine Art Treatment". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  12. ^ "Consulting". www.pamelacouncil.com. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
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