My work spans diverse media, from painting and weaving to installation and sculpture. I explore the possibilities of mark-making, examine writing systems and vernacular styles, and ask how we process and interpret visual information. Frequently, I incorporate ideas from other disciplines. My Jacquard tapestries focus on the convergence of visual and textual languages, making connections between text and textile. In dialogue with the material culture of weaving, I examine how weaving intersects and augments developments in writing, painting, and abstraction.
Specific themes persist in my art: an interest in structures, the potential of mark-making, notation and writing systems, an exploration of vernacular styles, and how perception is shaped through context and relationships. By merging ideas and transforming materials, I place my work in conversation with a range of topics, while inviting close reading and looking.
Artist Biography
Born in Hamburg, Germany, Annette Cords received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and currently lives in New York City. Cords’ recent Jacquard tapestries investigate how we read and decipher visual information in order to construct meaning and navigate our environment. Recent solo exhibitions include Shape/Shifters, Project: ARTspace, New York; Breaking the Grid at Kang Contemporary in Berlin; Sideways, New York Public Library; Diamond Days, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, Germany. Her work has appeared in group shows at venues including the Queens Museum, Flux Factory, The Drawing Center, Kentler International Drawing Space, and Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles. She has been the recipient of grants and residencies, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and an Open Sessions Residency at The Drawing Center.
Education
1993 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA MFA, Painting
1987 Principia College, Elsah, IL BA, Studio Art and English
Awards & Honors
2014 Open Sessions, Drawing Center, New York, NY
2010 Change, Inc., Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship
2003 New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship
2000 GMDC Artist’s Grant
1992 Gutman Center Residency
1991 Posey Foundation Award
Teaching Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
1990 University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Scholarship
1987 Kathryn Cogswell Maule Art Opportunity Award
Adelaide Caroll Johnson Art Contribution Award
Bibliography
2020 Conner, Jill, "Saturday—A Studio Visit,” AS I MAG, Medium, July 13, 2020
Conner, Jill, “Shape/Shifters—Gestures in Form,” Exhibition Catalogue, USA, 2020
2019 Mewes, Claus, “Fragment and Thread,” Exhibition Catalogue, Germany, 2019
"Lost in the Funhouse," Wall Street International Magazine, March 4, 2019
2017 Goodman, Jonathan, “Cognition-Stroll by Annette Cords and Becky Brown at Project: ARTspace,” Arte Fuse, July 18, 2017
“Two-person exhibition by Annette Cords and Becky Brown on view at Project: ARTspace,” Artdaily.org, June 29, 2017
Istomina, Tatiana, “Cognition-Stroll,’ Exhibition Catalogue, USA, 2017