b. 1987, Chicago, IL
Immolation, 2022, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in., 91 x 61 cm.
Meghan Markle Thee Stallion, 2023, oil on canvas, 57.5 x 109.5 in., 146 x 278 cm.
Delta-V, 2022, oil on canvas, 36 x 25 in., 91.5 x 61 cm.
Womanizer, 2023, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
Royalty-Free In the Afterglow of Taco Tuesday, 2023, oil on canvas, 57.5 x 109.5 in., 146 x 278 cm.
Crichoues Indignation, 2020, The Hole, New York, NY
Crichoues Indignation, 2020, The Hole, New York, NY
Retweet, 2022, oil on canvas, 57 x 57 in., 144 x 144 cm.
Fembot, 2023, The Hole, New York, NY
Late Night with Seth Meyers (Doja Cat), 2021, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in., 91 x 61 cm.
Naomi Campbell and Irina Shayk Go COWGIRL At Milan Fashion Week, 2022, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in., 61 x 94 cm.
Womanizer, 2023, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
Demon Core City Girls Telfar Bag Giveaway, 2023, oil on canvas, 575. x 109.5 in., 146 x 278 cm.
+ enlarge
Caitlin Cherry’s paintings feature larger-than-life subjects in striking color: Black femme figures, familiar composites drawn from an image culture that thrives on appropriating these women’s likeness while rarely crediting their creativity. Across her recent work, these women’s bodies are overlaid with cryptic alphanumeric symbols—kaleidoscopic incursions that refer back to the codes and algorithms that power our media landscape, fueling the algorithmic tools of Black culture’s dissemination and extraction. They also play at themes of authenticity and authentication, gesturing towards the PIN numbers and digital locks that facilitate the online sale of artificially-editioned art. While the women on view would seem to bare it all, the invocation of cryptography suggests a layer of nuance and agency—a reproach to the traditional female nude figure who passively abides her own sexualization.
caitlin cherry
Lives and works in Richmond, VA
education
M.F.A., Columbia University School of the Arts, New York, NY
2012
B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2010
Yale University, Summer School of Art, Norfolk, CT
2009
solo exhibitions
Womanizer, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA
2023
Caitlin Cherry: The Regolith Was Boiling, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA
2023
Luncheon on the Grass, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Late Night Enterprise, Perrotin Gallery, New York, NY
2022
Crichoues Indignation, The Hole, New York, NY
2020
Corps Sinore, Luis De Jesus, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2020
Threadripper, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2019
Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy
2019
Dirty Power, Providence College Galleries, Providence, RI
2018
Etherpaint, The Anderson, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
2018
select group exhibitions
Unapologetic WomXn: The Dream is the Truth at the Venice Biennale, Ross-Sutton Gallery, Venice, Italy
2024
NADA Miami, The Hole, Miami, FL
2023
Women on the Verge, Curated by Lisa Wainwright, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
2023
Fembot, The Hole, New York, NY
2023
I'll be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
2023
The Culture Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
2023
Opulence: Performative Wealth and the Failed American Dream, Bemis Center, Omaha, NE
2023
ZONA MACO, The Hole, Mexico City, Mexico
2023
NADA Miami, The Hole, Miami, FL
2022
Density Betrays Us, curated by Andrew Woolbright, Angela Dufresne, Melissa Ragona, The Hole, New York, NY
2021
Born in Flames, curated by Jasmine Wahi, Bronx Museum of Art, New York, NY
2021
Black Femme: Sovereign of WAP and the Virtual Realm, curated by Christina Ine-Kimba Boyle, Canada, New York, NY
2021
Illumination: 21st Century Interactions with Art + Science + Technology, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA
2020
On Their Own Terms, Windgate Center of Art + Design, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR
2019
A Wild Ass Beyond: ApocalypseRN, Performance Space, New York, NY
2018
Punch, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY
2018
Touchstone, American Medium, New York, NY
2018
Witness: Themes of Social Justice in Contemporary Printmaking and Photography, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR
2018
THE SUN IS GONE BUT WE HAVE THE LIGHT, Unclebrother/Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, Hancock, NY
2018
SOUL RECORDINGS, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Objected: Shaping Sculpture in Contemporary Art, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT
2016
Banksy’s Dismaland Bemusement Park, Weston-super-Mare, UK
2015
Civilization and its Discontents: SAIC 150th Anniversary Alumni Exhibition. Selections from 1985-2015, Sullivan Galleries, Chicago, IL
2015
Made in N.Y., Blueshift Gallery, Miami, FL
2015
8 Painters, Danese Corey Gallery, New York, NY
2015
Immediate Female, Judith Charles Gallery, New York, NY
2015
Don’t Look Now, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, NY
2014
This Is What Sculpture Looks Like, Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY
2014
Whitney Houston Biennial, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Corpus Americus, Driscoll Babcock Gallery, New York, NY
2013
Recess, curated by Tempest Hazel, South Side Community Art Center, Chicago, IL
2013
Fore, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
2012
Summer Show, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY
2012
Retrospective of S, curated by Jonathan Safran Foer and Sam Messer, Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, NY
2012
Columbia University MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Queens, NY
2012
NEXT GENERATION, Contemporary Wing, Washington, D.C.
2012
Paperwork, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY
2011
1st Year MFA Exhibition, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
2011
awards & residencies
Artist-in-residence, University Museum of Contemporary Art/UMass Amherst Printmaking Department
2017
Robert Rauschenberg Residency
2016
Leonore Annenberg Fellowship
2015
Lotos Foundation Grant Recipient
2012
Ellen Battel Stoeckel Fellowship, Yale University
2009
lectures & conferences
Visiting Artist Lecture, Boston University, Boston, MA
2017
Panelist, Black Aesthetics Conference, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
2017
Panelist, 1:1 Systems Theory in Practice Since WWII Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT
2017
Panelist, iHistory: Everyday Life and Culture in the Early 21st Century, Queens Museum, Queens, NY
2016
Caitlin Cherry’s Black Military Aesthetix, Afrofuturism Conference 2016, The New School, New York, NY
2016
Panelist, Hypervisibility of Black Image Online, Afrofuturism Conference 2016, The New School, New York, NY
2016
Caitlin Cherry’s FB Google IMG Search Matrix, Recess Art, New York, NY
2015
Panelist, SAIC 150th Alumni Panel, EXPO Chicago, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
2015
Panelist, How Do You Do What You Do?, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
2015
Visiting Artist Lecture, Illinois State University, Bloomington, IL
2014
In Conversation with Nick Faust, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Artist Talk, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2013
Mythological Creatures in Art – In Conversation with Lauren Haynes, Yashua Klos, Firelei Baez, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
2013
selected bibliography
Tory Akers, “Respectability Politics and Painting: An Interview with Caitlin Cherry,” Artspace, June 15
2019
Caitlin Cherry, “Pictorial SpaceX,” Art21 Magazine, Spring Issue: “21st Century Body,” May 30
2019
Joel Kuennen, “Caitlin Cherry,” Art in America, March 1
2019
Cate McQuaid, “Porn stars are powerful in the artist’s eyes,” The Boston Globe, February 20
2019