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For Willie Cole, the convergence of material and concept are as important as emotional and even spiritual links to history. Whether repurposing salvaged musical instruments, creating enigmatic visages from stacked stilettos, or arranging hundreds of single-use plastic bottles across a surface, his imaginative sculptural assemblages tap into a range of global traditions, eras, and social and environmental issues.
Cole explores our associations with physical objects by removing them from the context within which we’re accustomed to encountering them. Time-honored African masking traditions and figurative sculptures made of high heels meet modern symbols of labor and culture, such as repeated ironing board motifs or a handful of saxophones that have been reimagined as a bird.
“Tiger Lilly” (2025), repurposed shoes and wire, 19 x 18 x 13 inches
Mind, Body, and Soul, Cole’s current solo exhibition at Sargent’s Daughters, combines new works with pieces made throughout the past couple of decades. The selection emphasizes the artist’s interest in reframing and enriching everyday objects into assemblages of cultural significance.
“His practice transcends specific media or subject matter, moving fluidly across genres and iconographies to explore history, consumerism, and environmentalism,” the gallery says. In the era of fast fashion, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and an accelerating climate crisis, consumable and disposable objects contrast how we value our history and customs.
Mind, Body, and Soul continues through July 10 in New York. See more on the artist’s Instagram.
“Fly Girl” (2016), repurposed shoes and wire, 18 x 12 x 14 inches
Alternate view of “Fly Girl”
“Summer Shoes” (2025), silkscreen print, 21 x 27 inches
“Shoonufu Female Figure” (2013), bronze, 25 x 9.5 x 13 inches
“Survivors Series I (Wall Assemblages)” (2026) water bottles on board, 96 x 48 inches
Detail of “Survivors Series I (Wall Assemblages)”
“Twin Spirits” (2026), repurposed shoes and wire, 27 x 12 x 11 inchea
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