Unlike many contemporary artists who focus on social or media-related issues, Petah Coyne imbues her work with a magical quality to evoke intensely personal associations. Her sculptures convey an inherent tension between vulnerability and aggression, innocence and seduction, beauty and decadence,...
[more]Unlike many contemporary artists who focus on social or media-related issues, Petah Coyne imbues her work with a magical quality to evoke intensely personal associations. Her sculptures convey an inherent tension between vulnerability and aggression, innocence and seduction, beauty and decadence, and, ultimately, life and death. Coyne�s work seems Victorian in its combination of an overloaded refinement with a distinctly decadent and morbid undercurrent.
Coyne was born in Oklahoma City, but the family moved repeatedly before settling in Dayton, Ohio, when Coyne was twelve. While in high school, she took art courses at the University of Dayton, and then went on to Kent State University and graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Besides creating the sculptural installations for which she is best known, Coyne also works in photography.
Coyne changes materials every few years to approach the creative process from a fresh angle. The inspiration for each change often derives from one of her many travels abroad. So far, materials have included dead fish, mud, sticks, black sand, old car parts, wax, satin ribbons, artificial flowers and birds, birdcages, and most recently, taxidermy animals, Madonna statues, and horsehair. Coyne's creations are extremely labor intensive, and their multiple layers of materials relate to the passage of time it took to complete the work, as well as time in the form of memory�the artist�s personal memories and ones these objects evoke in us. She has been influenced by the sculptures of Eva Hesse and Louise Bourgeois.
[show less]
