Insisting on the material nature of art, on the interchangeability of things in the world, and malleability of meaning, Gregory Coates has broadened the scope of his own reality to put process and risk-taking at center-stage. This amounts to a kind of visual radicalism rarely seen today. (Bob Dilworth presenting – The Edward Mitchell Bannister Society’s Award for Excellence to Gregory Coates 2002)

Applying his own personal and inventive style using unorthodox material and color, Coates ‘ work cannot be pinned to one historical movement. It is informed by many, even contradictory schools of thought, such as Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism, Fluxus, Arte Povera, Mono-Ha, Modernism, Post-Modernism and Pop Art.

He is represented in many private and public collections including the Smithsonian Institute of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. His numerous Fellowships include The Pollock Krasner, The New York Foundation, and The Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Gregory Coates was born and raised in Washington D.C. where he attended the Corcoran School of Art, later won a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and did a stint at the Kunst Academie in Düsseldorf Germany. He exhibited his work in numerous one person shows in the US, and worldwide including Berlin, Vienna, London, Kyoto, and Capetown.

In 2011 Coates’ created a large scale site--‐specific installation, “Fences” on top of a Swiss Alps glacier - the result of a residency at Verbier 3-D Foundation. In 2010 he was invited to Japan to participate in the Aichi Triennial, and then was invited back in 2011 for the honor of being the first American artist to create a site-specific at the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan - a UNESCO world heritage site.

Coates’ international appeal is indicative of his global thinking. While strongly rooted and mature in his own culture and heritage his work addresses aspirations of humanity. With a kind of street-smart savvy, he investigates within traditions of High Modernism.

Consider This – is a continuation of Coates’ contemplative rather than declarative approach of mixing metaphors and questioning meaning and intent.

N’Namdi Contemporary
177 NW 23rd St.
Miami (FL) 33127 United States
Tel. +1 (786) 3324736
nncontemporary@gmail.com
www.nnamdicontemporary.com

Opening hours
Monday - Saturday
From 11am to 6pm