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Akeroyd Collection

Artists

Tony Cokes

b. 1956, Richmond, Virginia, U.S; lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.

Tony Cokes's artwork concerns popular culture and mass entertainment. His videos frequently take the form of essays in which Cokes displays excerpts and fragments of texts from existing sources on brightly-colored backgrounds, set to music. The sometimes distinct combinations of sound and image create particular resonance or disharmony, building multiple affective and textual registers for viewers. Cokes combines quotes from a range of materials including critical theory, cultural studies, art criticism, and news reports. His sources include Louis Althusser, Malcom X, Public Enemy, Mark Fisher and William Burroughs to name a few. Themes of racial tension in America, the representation of violence when it is not the state committing it, protest and the dissonance of the media landscape. The methods deployed by Cokes enable him to be immediately responsive to current events and yet, the format holds a timeless quality in light of ongoing, intersectional political struggles.

Tony Cokes's recent projects include Tony Cokes: Two Works and an Archive, Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2024); Dia Art Foundation / The Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton, New York (2023); Fragments, or just Moments, Haus der Kunst and Kunstverein München, Munich (2022); On Clubbing, Mourning, and Critique, Greene Naftali, New York (2022); Tony Cokes: Market of the Senses, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester (2021); This isn’t theory. This is history., MACRO Contemporary Art Museum, Rome (2021); 4 Voices / 4 Weeks, CIRCA, London (2021); Tony Cokes: Music, Text, Politics, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona (2020); If UR Reading this It’s 2 Late: Vol 3, ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels (2020); If UR Reading this It’s 2 Late: Vol 2, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2020); To Live as Equals, BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands (2020); Before and After the Studio: Volume II, Luma Westbau, Zurich (2019); If UR Reading this It’s 2 Late: Vol 1, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London (2019); Collision/Coalition: Tony Cokes and Oscar Murillo, The Shed, New York (2019); Evil, Mediation, and Power, Kunsthall Bergen, Norway (2018); and Tony Cokes: Retro (Pop, Terror, Critique), REDCAT, Los Angeles (2012).

For further information about this artist please click here.

For Tony Coke's entry on Asia Art Archive's website please click here.

Exhibitions

2025

  • Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, curated by Letizia Ragaglia, Liechtenstein , Liechtenstein (solo)

  • All About Evil (Selected Works: 2006 – 2022), Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US (solo)

  • Selma, Birmingham, and The Morrissey Problem, Judy's Death, Paris, France (solo)

  • Homage: Queer lineages on video, curated by Rattanamol Singh with works from the Akeroyd Collection, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia Univeristy, New York, US (group)

  • Code Switch, organized by Legacy Russell, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI, US (group)

  • Craig Kalpakjian, Liz Deschenes, Tony Cokes, Good Weather, Chicago, US (group)

  • It's Just a Matter of Time, Palais Populaire by Deutsche Bank, Berlin, Germany (group)

  • THE THIRD PERSPECTIVE, curated by Francesca Gavin, The Merode, Brussels, Belgium (group)

  • Utopia, Dystopia, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, US (group)

2024

  • Tony Cokes: Two Works and an Archive, Hessel Museum of Art, New York, U.S (solo)

  • Space Mapping: Video Art Series, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, U.S (group)

  • Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto, Portugal (solo)

  • The 9 Rules of Tremulations, curated by Daniel Birnbaum & Jacqui Davies, No Name, Paris, France (group)

  • Love Louder, Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium (group)

  • Labour, Art Museum at the Univesity of London, UK (group)

  • Artists Making Books: Pages of Refuge, American Academy in Rome, Italy (group)

  • Scrawlspace, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, NY, US (group)

  • The Right to the City: Public Space on Film, Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College, New York, NY, US (group)

  • Rewilding, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (group)

  • Space Mapping: Video Art Series, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, U.S (group)

  • A Model, MUDAM, The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (group)

  • The Irreplaceble Human, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (group)

2023

  • Dia Art Foundation / The Dan Flavin Art Institute, Bridgehampton, New York, U.S (solo)

  • Fade to Black (1990), Staff Picks, e-flux (screening)

  • After The Future (SM BNGRZ Rework 2), curated by Adam Carr, Further Down the Line, Liverpool, U.K (solo)

  • Evil.13 (The Triumph of Evil), Studiengalerie 1.357, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany (solo)

  • The Irreplaceable Human, The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (group)

  • DELAY TODAY, Establissment d’en face, Brussels, Belgium (group)

  • Performa Biennial, Sonic Tonic Assembly, Episode 2: Sounding a Black Grammar, New York (screening and artist talk)

  • Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21s t Centuries, Fondazione Prada, Milan and Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai, China (group)

  • To tell your own story (Comment se raconteur), Frac Lorraine, Metz, France (group)

  • To Watch the War, in Solidarity, Tivolivredenburg, Netherlands (group)

  • Full Burn: Video from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, The Hammer, Los Angeles, U.S (group)

  • Living in a Magazine World, curated by Claire Koran Elat, 032c, Paris, France (group)

  • DEMO- Augmented Exhibition, curated by Ben Livne Weitzman, Frankfurt, Germany (group)

  • Shift: Music, Meaning, Context, co-organized with Goethe-Institut Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, U.S (group)

  • Signals: How Video Transformed the World, organized by Stuart Comer and Michelle Kuo, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S (group)

2022

  • Do Nothing. Feel Everything., Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia (group)

  • The 58th Carnegie International: Is it morning for you yet?, curated by Sohrab Mohebbi, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA (group)

  • off-kilter, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, USA (group)

  • On Clubbing, Mourning, and Critique, Greene Naftali, New York, USA (solo)

  • Fragments, or just Moments, Haus der Kunst and Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany (solo)

  • TECHNO WORLDS, organized by Goethe-Institute, Centre PHI, Goethe-Institut Montreal, and Société des arts technologiques, Montreal, Canada (group)

  • Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (group)

  • The Whole Life: Archives & Imaginaries, House of the World’s Cultures (HKW), Berlin, Germany (group)

  • Evil.81: Is This Amrkkka?: DJ Joe Nice Speaks, ajh.pm, Bielefeld, Germany (solo)

  • This Tender, Fragile Thing, Jack Shainman: The School, Kinderhook, New York, USA (group)

  • The Will & The Way... Fragments 1 and 2, Hyundai Card Video Views, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (solo)

2021

  • SM BNGRZ, Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna, Austria (solo)

  • Faz escuro mas eu canto – 34 th São Paulo Biennial Tour, Casa do Maranhão, São Luís, Brazil; traveled to Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; traveling to Museo de Arte de Río, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (group)

  • Tony Cokes: Market of the Senses, curated by Almudena Escobar López, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA (solo)

  • Evil. 80.Empathy?, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, LA, USA (solo)

  • This isn’t theory. This is history., MACRO Contemporary Art Museum, Rome, Italy (solo)

  • 4 Voices / 4 Weeks, CIRCA, London, UK (solo)

2020

  • Tony Cokes: Music, Text, Politics, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (solo)

  • Faz escuro mas eu canto – 34 th São Paulo Biennial Tour, Casa do Maranhão, São Luís, Brazil; traveled to Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (group)

  • If UR Reading this It’s 2 Late: Vol 3, ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels, Belgium (solo)

  • Black Celebration, Hammer Museum, LA, USA (solo)

  • To Live as Equals, curated by Thiago de Paula Souza, BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands (solo)

  • Tony Cokes: Five Weeks, organized by Dr. Katie Geha, Dodd Galleries, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia (solo)

2019

  • Tony Cokes: Non-Visibility, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut, Florence, Italy (solo)

  • Before and After the Studio: Volume II, curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen, Luma Westbau, Zürich, Switzerland (solo)

  • Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991-2011, organized by Peter Eleey and Ruba Katrib, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, USA (group)

  • Collision/Coalition: Tony Cokes and Oscar Murillo, The Shed, New York, USA (solo)

  • It's Urgent!, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Charlottenborg, Denmark (group)

  • Sound Systems, Tate Modern Cinema Program, Tate Modern, London, UK (solo)

  • Could you visit me in dreams?, Gabi+, Vienna, Austria (group)

  • Evil.27: Selma, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, USA (solo)

  • The Power of Music, Charlottenborg Art Cinema, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark (group)

  • Karmaklubb Presents Tony Cokes, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (group)

  • Della’s House, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, LA, USA (solo)

2018

  • Niepodległe. Women and National Discourse, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (group)

  • Evil, Mediation, and Power, Kunsthall Bergen, Norway (solo)

  • On Non-Visibility, Greene Naftali, New York, USA (solo)

2015

  • Music for Museums, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (group)

2012

  • Tony Cokes: Retro (Pop, Terror, Critique), REDCAT, Los Angeles, USA (solo)

  • RE: MADE, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania (group)

2011

  • Tony Cokes: Notes on Evil (and Others), Gene Siskel Film Center, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, USA (solo)

2009

  • 4 Projects / 2 Collaborations, Getty Research Institute Scholar Common Room, Los Angeles, USA (solo)

2007

  • Videos in Progress – Tony Cokes: Evil. 6, RISD Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, USA (solo)

  • Evil Series, ArtCite Media City, Windsor, Ontario, Canada (solo)

  • Pause, Fleckstein Video Gallery, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, USA (solo)

2006

  • Pop Manifestos, Images Festival, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, Toronto (solo)

  • 1! Images Festival, Gladstone Hotel, Art Bar, Toronto, Canada (solo)

2005

  • Pop Manifestos Visible Sound and Image for the Ear, Seoul Film & Net Festival, Samsung Media Lounge, Dansungsa, Seoul, South Korea (solo)

  • Pop Manifestos, MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium (solo)

  • Pop Manifestos, MurMur. Rotterdam International Film Festival, TENT, Rotterdam, Netherlands (solo)

2003

  • Tony Cokes / Steel Stillman, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, USA (solo)

  • Shrink2b.demo, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, Netherlands (solo)

2002

  • Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (group)

  • Make Way for Tomorrow, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (group)

2001

  • AD Vice, Melkweg, New Media Room, Amsterdam, Netherlands (solo)

2000

  • Video Time, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (group)

1999

  • Why Pop?, Boston Cyberarts Festival, Boston (solo)

1996

  • Tony Cokes: A Video Retrospective, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA (solo)

  • Black History: Tony Cokes, STUK, Leuven, Belgium (solo)

1995

  • NO SELL OUT...(Malcolm X Pt. 2), Knight Gallery, Spirit Square Center for Arts and Education, Charlotte, USA (solo)

  • Rooms With A View: Environments for Video, Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York, USA (group)

1994

  • just bcuz ur PARANOID...(Remix), 7th Berlin Videofest, Berlin, Germany (solo)

  • Dan Graham: Three Linked Cubes/Interior Design for Space Showing Videos, 1986, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (group)

1993

  • JST BCUZ UR PARANOID...(Malcolm X Pt. 1), Alternative Museum, New York, USA (solo)

  • Malcolm X: Man, Ideal, Icon, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (group)

1992

  • Atlanta Third World Video Festival, Atlanta, USA (solo)

1991

  • Word 2 My Mother, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (solo)

  • DELAY/ENJOY (the invisible generation), Donnell Media Center, New York Public Library, New York, USA (solo)

  • 2 Videos, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, USA (solo)

  • The Revolution Will Be Televised: Videoworks by Tony Cokes, Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, USA (solo)

  • Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (group)

1990

  • Capital, It Fails Us Now (Credit), Art In General, New York, USA (solo)

  • Image World: Metamedia, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (group)

1989

  • Computer/Video, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (group)

1985

  • Positions/ Oppositions (In The Culture Factory), Virginia Commonwealth University, Anderson Gallery, Richmond, USA (solo)

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Awards

2025

  • Art Basel Awards Medalist

2024

  • MacArthur Foundation Fellowship

2023

  • Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Italy

2022

  • Rome Prize Fellow, The American Academy in Rome, Rome

2020

  • Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow, The American Academy in Berlin, Berlin

2014

  • Residential Fellow, Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York, U.S

2010

  • AT&T Research Assistantship, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S

2009

  • Resident Scholar / Artist-in-Residence, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, U.S

2007

  • Forbes Research Grant, Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Research in Modern Culture and Media Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S (‘sonic.focus.2’ Conference)

  • Lectureship Funds, Dean of Faculty, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S (“sonic.focus.2” Conference)

2006

  • Faculty Development Fund, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S ('Evil' series)

  • Fitt Artist-In-Residence Award, Creative Arts Council, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S ('sonic.focus' Conference)

  • Forbes Research Grant, Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Research in Modern Culture and Media Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S ('sonic.focus; Conference)

  • Lectureship Funds, Dean of Faculty, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S ('sonic.focus' Conference)

  • Salomon Research Award, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S (for Shrink)

  • Creative Capital Foundation, New York, U.S (Supplemental Funding: Billboard Project & ‘Pop Manifestos’)

2003

  • Departmental Research Funds for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S

  • Lectureship Funds, Dean of Faculty, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S ('sonic.focus' Conference)

2002

  • Faculty Development Fund, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S (for 'Evil' series)

2000

  • Multi-Arts Production Fund (for Dance Collaboration), Rockefeller Foundation, New York, U.S

1999

  • Creative Capital Foundation, New York, U.S (for Billboard Project and 'Pop Manifestos')

1996

  • International Video Art Award Competition (semi-finalist), ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany

  • Intercultural Film/Video Fellowship (for 'Pop Manifestos'), Rockefeller Foundation, New York, U.S

1995

  • Public Postering Project Grant, Creative Time, Inc., New York, U.S

1994

  • Fellowship (Multimedia installation art), John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New York, U.S

1993

  • Alumni Star, School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, U.S

1992

  • United States/France Artists Exchange Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, American Center, Paris, France

  • Media Production Grant, New York State Council on the Arts, New York, U.S

1991

  • Visual Artists Fellowship, New Genres, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C, U.S

  • Fellowship in Video, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, U.S

  • Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival, San Francisco, U.S

  • Video Experimental (2nd Prize), Athens International Film and Video Festival, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, U.S

  • Video Experimental (2nd Prize), Athens International Film and Video Festival, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, U.S

  • Prized Pieces Award, (Winner: Cultural Affairs Doc.), National Black Programming Consortium, Columbus, Ohio, U.S

1990

  • Agit-Prop Video Award, Video Witnesses: A Festival of New Journalism, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York, U.S

1988

  • Media Production Grant, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Project Grant, Art Matters Inc., New York, U.S

1986

  • Fellowship in Video, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, U.S

  • Media Production Grant, New York State Council on the Arts, New York, U.S

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