ELISSA COX
Lecturer, Ceramics and FoundationsRoom 229, Reynolds Building
Phone:
Education: M.F.A., Ohio University, Athens
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Both the human body and the natural landscape inspire me and inform my direction in my work. When I create, manipulate and mold materials into life-size organic shapes, the contrast and overlap of the beauty found in the natural environment and that of mortal anatomy creates a dynamic dialogue between configuration and surface. These corporeal forms aesthetically resemble natural flora and fauna, and it is this very juxtaposition of natural beauty and sublime fleshiness that seduces, repels and motivates me to manipulate tactile materials into new environments.
The role of dreamscapes and fantasy are also culprits in formulating my sculptures. My materials become entangled in space to compose invented habitats, ones that become an attempt to reveal fantasy through concrete form and materiality.
I prefer to overwhelm the senses with visual excess, with the grandeur of the fantastical, and with my compulsion to detail and craft. I intend for my sculptures to be seductively massive, yet at the same time decidedly delicate-- creating environments inspired by my dreams, landscape visions and human fragilities.
Elissa Cox will be a visiting Lecturer at the University of Kentucky, Lexington for the 2007-2008 academic year. She completed her MFA at Ohio University, Athens in 2007 and her BFA ceramics, BA art history from the University of Minnesota in 2003. She has also studied in Florence, Italy, New Zealand, and at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has shown her work in many group show across the United States, and will be having upcoming solo exhibitions in Ohio, Kansas, and Tennessee. She will also be a resident at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY Summer 2008.
www.elissacoxstudio.com