Kori Newkirk
Kori Newkirk, who is known for transforming found materials into installations that conjure moments of unexpected beauty, and even magic, created a sculptural apparition in Galleta Meadows—a rainbow, sketched in space from industrial materials.
Lit for only one night, its blacklight shone down to the ground, bathing visitors and the landscape in its otherworldly glow. Experimenting with the visual effects of materials meant to conduct water and mimic their effects, Newkirk offered an encounter with an unnatural natural phenomenon.
Newkirk received his MFA from the University of California, Irvine in 1997 and his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993. In addition to a monographic survey at The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Newkirk has had solo exhibitions at LAXART, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and Locust Projects, Miami.
Group exhibitions include Blues for Smoke, MOCA, Los Angeles; the 2006 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and DAK’ART: 7th Dakar Biennial, Dakar, Senegal; the 2004 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; Freestyle at The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, among many others.
In February 2019, Newkirk will debut a commissioned project for the inaugural edition of Frieze Projects in Los Angeles.
