In the Vicinity of White: Cobi Cockburn

Portland, OR - Bullseye Projects presents In the Vicinity of White, a solo exhibition from Australian artist Cobi Cockburn. The exhibition expands on Cockburn’s exploration of the color white through art history and cultural lenses. In the Vicinity of White will be on view September 12 - December 1, 2018.

“In the Vicinity of White explores the potential of colour and abstraction as stimulative artistic devices that spur human emotion beyond the inherent constraints of reality,” says Cockburn. In particular, the artist is interested in the concept of 'white' as a source for a body of work that "...builds on the colour’s conceptual and historical basis...[and] explores my understandings of the hue and its roles within art, existence, and faith,” she explains.

This exploration occurs through kiln-glass panels created using an intensive process that Cockburn has been developing throughout her career. Long canes of glass are pulled by hand, arranged, fused together, and then coldworked. This process produces subtle transitions in value, hue, and transparency, resulting in a body of work that is as much about glass as a material as it is an encapsulation of Cockburn’s interest in the modernist artistic movements of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. Cockburn sees these movements as visually distinct yet both are concerned with reducing an artwork to its essence. This process of abstraction, for Cockburn, is a way to affect the subconscious and delve, “…into the depths of what ultimately makes us human.”

Cobi Cockburn is a graduate of Sydney College of the Arts in Australia and an honors graduate of the Glass Workshop at the School of Art & Design, Australian National University. She received the Tom Malone Prize in 2015 and 2009, and the Ranamok Glass Prize in 2006. Cockburn's work has been published in New Glass Review, art ltd., American Craft and Craft Arts International, and is in the collections of the Palm Springs Art Museum and the Corning Museum of Glass.