Petah Coyne

Petah Coyne was born in Oklahoma City, 1953. She lives & works in NYC.

Petah Coyne is a very prominent contemporary artist.

In her massive and unconventional sculptures, she takes on the human condition.

Her complex, layered works made from non-traditional materials connect the language of opposites to push the concepts of life and death, growth and decay, order and chaos.

Coyne balances horror and humor, light and darkness.

In her work, memory plays a key role, reflecting the tension between life and life’s traces.

The deep sense of grief found throughout her work is tempered by the possibility that balance can be gained in the wake of loss.

All of Coyne’s works take inspiration from personal stories, film, literature and political events.

Petah Coyne, “Untitled 1234 (Tom’s Twin,” 2007-8, Mixed Media. Galerie Lelong.

 Untitled #875 (Black Atlanta), 1997

Her sculptures are over ten feet tall, suspended from the ceiling and strangely encrusted with flowers, ribbons and birds, all dripping with a carpet of wax as if frozen in time.

Her work consist of remarkable chandeliers, billowing veils,

capes of red feathers and colossal bridal splendors. 

Petah Coyne’s affectionately refers to her sculptures as her “girls”

Petah Coyne ‘Untitled #1103 (Daphne)

Coyne belongs to a generation of sculptors—many of them women—who came of age in the late 1980s. This group includes Cassandra Smith and Angela Singer.

This group of women changed the great practice of sculpture with their new interest in nature, and a liking for detailed craftsmanship, domestic references and psychological metaphor.

Coyne and her peers took flamboyant risks. 

Little Ed's Daughter Margaret from Chapter 11 in Living with Art is the reason why I chose this artist. This piece is mournful and tragic, bu also creepy and funny, sad and silly all at the same time (pg 274).
From far away, it looks like a tangled mass but, upon closer inspection, you see that it was an intricate composition of tree branches, birds, ribbon, thread, tassels and wax-dipped silk flowers. This piece makes a bold statement, especially since the piece is programmed to cry at spontaneous times twice every day.

Untitled #1111 (Little Ed's Daughter Margaret) (detail)

Coyne’s references are historical and personal.

Her sculpture is influenced by her careful study of art history—such as Dutch still life’s and baroque sculpture—as well as her observant religious upbringing.

Petah Coyne, Untitled # 1093 (Buddha Boy), 2001–2003.

Altar Mary 

Coyne’s wax-coated sculptures are a metaphor for emotion and memory. Located in a museum’s early sixteenth-century French chapel, Altar Mary refers to acts of private devotion and recalls Roman Catholic shrines dedicated to Mary.

Petah Coyne, Untitled 1031S-01, 2001. Galerie Lelong, New York.

When Petah was a younger artist, she had a compulsion for collecting dead fish and she used them to decorate the rafters of her NYC loft. After her husband developed an allergic sensitivity to them, she used the 5,000 fish to decorate other places instead. At one point, she discovered a charming home in Long Island and, in the middle of the night, strung lines through the trees outside the front door of the house, then hung a large number of the dead fish on the lines. She was so hurt the next day when the homeowner came outside and reacted negatively to the fish that decorated his front yard. To Petah, the fish were a great gift and she couldn't understand why the homeowner didn't love them the same way she did.

Petah Coyne, Vermilion Fog Exhibition

Untitled #1180 (Beatrice)

Petah Coyne, Vermilion Fog Exhibition

Untitled #1180 (Beatrice), detail, 2003-2008
Silk flowers, wax cast statuary, taxidermy animals, taxidermy birds, thread, silk/rayon velvet, felt, tree branches, tree bark, driftwood, specially formulated wax, pearl-headed hat pins, black spray paint, pigment, plywood, wood, metal hardware, chicken wire fencing, wire, cable, cable bolts.

 
Petah Coyne Canto VIII, 2008

Silk flowers, taxidermic bird, thread, silk/rayon velvet, felt, wax,
pearl-headed hatpins, spray paint, pigment, chicken-wire fencing,
wire, plywood, metal hardware, cable, and cable bolts
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York

 Canto VIII, 2008

Petah Coyne, Untitled # 720, (Eguchi’s Ghost) , 1992/2007

Petah Coyne: Everything That Rises Must Converge 2010

 Petah Coyne: Everything That Rises Must Converge 2010