COSO 2023 BIENNIAL: COSO 10
April - June, 2023
Jurors: Maya Brooks, Kaya Clark, “JP” Jermaine Powell
The 10th iteration of COSO is a record breaker! With a higher submission rate than ever before, COSO 2023 presents 29 artists from across the South. COSO’s goal is to explore what artists and makers in the regional South are currently thinking, discussing, and making work about. VAE firmly believes that art and exhibitions have the power to create social change, and COSO is an extension of our core values, vision, and mission to produce, fund, and exhibit socially-engaged art through community collaboration.
The COSO 2023 Biennial was juried by Maya A Brooks, the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at NCMA + SECCA; Kaya AD Clark, the Gallery Manager at MINT + a contemporary artist; and Jermaine “JP” Powell, contemporary artist and winner of COSO 2021.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Jane Cheek (NC) Rolling Down a Hill and Staring At the Sky
Julia Koff (NC) Don’t Let ‘Em Get Your Goat
Kat Chudy (FL) Disability Passport; What Remains
Kenn Kotara (NC) Diastolic
Kiara Gilbert (GA) The Ecstasy of St. Sebastian
Logan Burroughs (GA) to heaven
Los Hermanos Negroni (PR) Bomba, lluvia y descarga
Megan Angolia (VA) OhJesustheresabuginthetub!; Never thought I’d disinfect groceries on my porch, but here we are
Norton Pease (GA) Wonder Breed
Sadie Sheldon (LA) 3 Samples from Arabic Scroll (100 views on waking or just before)
tianxing xu (GA) Decary; Pill
TJ Mundy (NC) The Opposition of Identity
Tommy Mclaurin (NC) Power Factory
VInny Verberg (NC) I Can Feel You There
Ali O’Leary (GA) Fleeting
Aliyah Bonnette (NC) A Sip of Your Water
Andrew Bailey Arend (NC) The Black Forest
Angel Perdomo (LA) Diamonds and Pearls
Audrey Hynes (GA) Untitled, Stars and Static (Oceans and Reservoirs)
Ashten McKinney (NC) Prowess
Benry Fauna (LA) Dejah No. 1 ; Vincente
Bethany Bash (NC) If You See Something, Say Something
Britt Clark (NC) Fight or Flight
Cecil Norris (NC) The Water Peddler
Charles Cameron (NC) Titled Tiles
CJ Murphy (NC) Irreversible
Clark Munford (NC) If These Walls Could Speak
Huan LaPlante (SC) From Nothing (ex nihilo in nihilum)
Isabel Lu (NC) Bang Chan; Rather Be Shattered Jade
JURORS
Maya Brooks (she/her), North Carolina
Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, NCMA & SECCA
Maya Brooks is currently the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art and Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, an intermediary position that forges her passion for technology with art history through exhibition curation and interpretation. Brooks' professional mission is to provide equitable museum experiences for diverse populations. Overall, she strives to restore access, inclusion, and agency in the museum field for historically marginalized communities.
Kaya Clark (she/her), Georgia
Gallery Manager, MINT + Contemporary Artist
Adrianna “Kaya” Clark began her love an air with photography at an early age. Drawing inspiration from conversations with women of the African diaspora about life, love, and living, she captures her subjects in natural light. After traveling the world due to her father being in the Marine Corps, she settled in Atlanta in 1995. After graduating from Spelman College in 1999, she taught third through fifth grades in Atlanta Public Schools for 18 years. When her son was born in 2007, she ventured back into photography, and began sharing her work in Atlanta art shows. From the beginning of her photography career, she surrounded herself with African-American female artists as mentors and surrogate teachers. As a former teacher herself, her former students’ enthusiasm is a continuous catalyst in adding more depth to her work that creates a point of entry for educators and institutions alike to provide spaces and curriculum that use art to build self-esteem, self love, and the beauty in blackness.
“JP” Jermaine Powell (he/him), North Carolina
Contemporary Artist, 1st Prize COSO 2021
“JP” Jermaine Powell is a North Carolina based mixed-media designer, public artist and muralist. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, JP holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, located in Brooklyn, New York. His paintings and public art projects explore the complexities of human relationships, diversity and community in regards to materialism, and consumerism.
As a world traveler, JP’s travel experiences have inspired the use of various luxury objects featured in his artwork. Both American and international currencies are often featured symbolically in his three dimensional paintings. In his Modern Currency and Pure Luxury Collections (2018-2022), JP also uses bold, colorful textures, flowers, patterns, and mosaic tile.
JP was recently named the North Carolina Museum Of Art’s Artist In Residence. JP’s artwork has also been featured in the North Carolina Museum Of Art, Raleigh Magazine, The Harvey B. Gantt Center For African American Art & Culture, Duke University, Hayti Heritage Center, Art Space Galleries, RaleighArts, The City of Durham, and the DurhamArtGuild. He is fortunate to have collectors throughout the United States, Argentina, Japan, South Africa, and London.
In June of 2020 JP was formally announced as the 1st place winner of the Fuquay Varina En Plein Air Paint Off. JP’s work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Ohio, New York, Maryland, Washington D.C., and North Carolina.