On View at the Boise Art Museum, October 5, 2013 - April 27, 2014
Saddle Stitch
Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TX
May 17 – June 21, 2014
I am very pleased to announce my first solo exhibition at Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas, TX.
The exhibition, Saddle Stitch, will include some new lace cowboys and horticultural works made from pulp cowboy novels. I am looking forward to introducing my work to a new audience.
Graighead Green Gallery →
ART MADE FROM BOOKS
Chronicle Books
My work is featured in Art Made from Books, a newly released title from Chronicle Books. Expertly edited by Laura Heyenga, this beautifully designed book features the work of twenty-seven artists who use books as the raw material for their work.
Chronicle Books →
Playing with Image Transfers: Exploring Creative Imagery for Use in Art, Mixed Media, and Design
Quarry Books
Artist and writer Courtney Cerruti has written an informative and helpful new book on image transfer techniques in which she included my work.
Quarry Books →
500 Handmade Books, Volume 2
Lark Publications
Last but not least, my work is included in another exceptional book, 500 Handmade Books, Volume 2, by Julie Chen. It showcases the unlimited creative possibilities of books as objects and as sculptural pieces.
Lark Publications →
In the Studio
Textiles are in Lisa Kokin's blood. Her parents were upholsterers, and she uses the techniques of sewing and book arts to create detailed, thoughtful work that often transforms found objects and words. For the exhibition Do Not Destroy, she created the piece Fauxliage: No Birds Sing which transformed Rachel Carson's landmark environmental book Silent Spring into delicate and quite convincing leaf forms, a reference to the anti-pesticide message therein.
Women's Work
Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
March 3 – March 30, 2014
Donna Seager and Suzanne Gray have always been enthusiastic champions of the work of women artists. Although gender blind in their selections of work, they are increasingly drawn to works created by women. I am proud to be featured in this show of seven artists whose work spans a variety of media and approaches. For more on collection work by women artists see essay by Donna Seager.
Read Essay →
Panacea Pizpireta
Tribune Tower Building
409 13th Street, Oakland, CA
April 25 – July 25, 2014
My piece Panacea Pizpireta, made of the spines of self-help books, will be featured in an art space curated by SLATE Art Consulting. Once again I am fortunate to have the opportunity to show my work to a new audience in a prominent downtown venue. I am pleased to be associated with SLATE Art Consulting and I look forward to working with them in other venues in the future.
How the West Was Sewn
Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
October 5, 2013 – April 27, 2014
This solo exhibition, curated by Sandy Harthorn, features my most recent work which uses imagery and pages from recycled pulp cowboy novels.
"For the past two decades, Lisa Kokin has been at the forefront of an emerging new art form: the artist’s book. Through preservation and destruction, she utilizes book spines and covers by disguising and weaving them into colorful wall installations. The artist pushes her medium beyond the customary use. Sewing, stapling, riveting, shredding, pulping, gluing and reconstituting books salvaged from such sources as recycling centers, Kokin repurposes the discarded books into works woven with text and image that cast intricate shadows onto the walls. The branch shapes make reference to the origins of the books as trees or plant fibers."
— Sandy Harthorn, curator of art, Boise Art Museum
Boise Art Museum →
REUSE MUSE 2014
Words / Letters / Fragments + Recycled Materials
A six-weeks class April 23 — June 11
Wednesdays, 1:00 — 3:30 p.m.
In this March session we will delve deeper into our exploration of the intersection of text and text-related imagery with found materials. Through concept- and material-based assignments we will work two- and three-dimensionally to create collage, sculpture and artist books. The class nurtures a spirit of curiosity and risk-taking, which emphasizes process as well as product.
Critiques are both supportive and challenging. No previous art experience is necessary and beginners are welcome!
Continue →
Commission for the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, CA
Recently I completed Filifolia #2, a commission for the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, which will be installed in March, 2014. One of the things I most enjoy in my studio practice is to do commissions for public venues, especially for healthcare facilities, where people who might not ordinarily visit galleries and museums spend time waiting in a sometimes anxious state of mind. I am happy to make work that calms the spirit and takes the mind off a difficult situation, if even for a few moments.
Continue to commissions →
Boise Art Museum Acquisition
I am thrilled to announce that the Boise Art Museum has acquired Lost River, a large thread piece with text from Lost River Buckaroos, a cowboy book from the 1930s. Lost River is a major piece from a body of work incorporating text and imagery from cowboy novels which I began several years ago, and which will be included in my solo show at the BAM in October.
Boise Art Museum →