Curator Talks About "Willie Cole's Favorite Brands"

We finally made the (arduous!) four-block trek down to the Frye to check out "Anxious Objects: Willie Cole's Favorite Brands." The exhibit highlights the last 20 years of Cole's work, heavy on the mixed media sculptures he's famous for. Cole takes ratty, disposable, everyday domestic objects and transforms them into pristine pieces that mimic symbols from South Asian and African art: scorched ironing boards become Domestic Shields, detached gas pump nozzles arc up from the floor like vipers ready to strike, and hundreds of thrift store high-heeled shoes transform into masks and dragons and mandalas. Cole's understanding of the forms and symbols at work in African and South Asian art shines through everything; the shapes and styles he evokes are spot on, no matter the medium. We had no idea irons could be so sexy.

The show was curated by Patterson Sims, the director of the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey, who, ten years ago, was serving as Curator of Modern Art for our very own SAM. Tonight at 7 p.m., Sims will give the Curator Lecture at the Frye, discussing how Cole's exhibit came together. And we hear he's quite a character.

And like all things Frye and wonderful, it's free!
* Photo courtesy of the Frye Art Museum