Cole Sternberg is a Californian visual artist. Sternberg's media include painting, photography, sculpture, literature, room installations and film. Cole Sternberg Paintings, a hardcover book released in 2008 features six years of his painting. The 162 page book is listed as the first public release of Sternberg's work. Subsequent work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe.Exclusive: An Interview With L.A. Artist Cole Sternberg, FlavorWire.com, July, 2009
Early life Sternberg was born in Richmond, VA and grew up in Saratoga, CA. He spent his early life drawing endlessly, but disliked the concept of being told how to perceive art, hence his educational pursuits led to B.A. degrees from Villanova University in business, and a Juris Doctor from American University. While at American, Sternberg received the university's Highest Award for Scholarship at the Graduate Level.Student Awardees, American.edu He hung oil paintings in a bar in his spare time as a student at American.Exclusive: An Interview With L.A. Artist Cole Sternberg, FlavorWire.com, July, 2009
Career Cole Sternberg's practice spans painting, installation, video, and writing, often unfolding as sustained series that interrogate pressing social concerns — from human rights and their entanglement with legal frameworks, to the fragility of the environment, to the manipulations and excesses of humankind.
His works are frequently understated or quietly subversive, propelled by lyrical visual strategies and an undercurrent of poetry. At their core lies a preoccupation with the dissonance between humanity’s ideals and humankind’s actions — a misalignment that, in his view, impedes genuine social evolution.
Collections His works are held by major collections throughout the world, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),LACMA Collection Database, 2018 Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), Museum of Old and New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), American University Museum (AUM) and Deutsche Telekom.
Reception Cole's work has been featured in the New York Times,The Distinct Californication of Paris Photo L.A., New York Times, T Magazine, May 2015 Wall Street Journal,Cars as Canvas; Walls as Artwork, Wall Street Journal, July 2013 Whitewall Magazine,A Moment in the Sun, Whitewall Magazine, September, 2013 Issue Magazine,Cole Sternberg, Issue Magazine, January 2016 Autre Magazine,Live Long Enough to Live Forever, a Q&A with Cole Sternberg, Autre Magazine, May 2015 Hercules,NYC Artist Portfolio, Hercules, April 2014 Denver Post,Colorado’s Best Places to See Art Right Now, Denver Post, February 2013 Miami New Times,Primary Projects “International Friendship Exhibition”: American Kitsch, Miami New Times, December 2015 LA Weekly,One of LA’s Most Fascinating and Rebellious Museums is in…El Segundo?, LA Weekly, January 2015 Art Ltd.,Cole Sternberg: “I was here for just a moment” at David B. Smith Gallery, Art Ltd., May 2011 Architectural Digest,Tour a Redesigned Prewar New York Apartment, Architectural Digest, May 2017 Angeleno, Sleek,Cole Sternberg on the Link between Painting and the Environment, Sleek Magazine, June 2017 Metal Magazine,Cole Sternberg, the Sky, the Sea and Everything in Between, Metal Magazine, March 2016 Flaunt,Cole Sternberg, Candy Apple Grey Paint, Flaunt Magazine, October 2015 ArtNet,Cole Sternberg Artist News, ArtNet, January 2018 Huffington Post,Artist Interview: Cole Sternberg, Huffington Post, November 2015 Cool Hunting,Artist Cole Sternberg’s Boat Voyage from Japan to Portland, Cool Hunting, January 2016 Santa Barbara Magazine, Huffington Post, Lum Art Magazine, Carla and Elephant.5 Questions with Cole Sternberg, Elephant Magazine, February 2016
Exhibition history
2025
as worldly doubts are cast away, Compound, Long Beach, CA the wind is heavy which blows between a horse’s ears, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
2023
a forest of thoughts in quick succession, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA Storage Wars, The Hole, Los Angeles We Are They: Glitch Ecology and the Thickness of Now, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, CA (Probably) All in My Mind, Verse, London, U.K. For Zoe Leonard: A Performance, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), Santa Barbara, CA
2022
departed for the curve, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA to join the larger raindrop of the world, Yeo Workshop, Singapore The Medium as the Message, Wende Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Threads and Tensions: The Interconnected World, Yeo Workshop, Singapore Freestate, El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), El Segundo, CA
2020
Show Me the Signs, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA Year One, Ojai Institute, Ojai, CA owls stirred the silence here and there, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2019
The Edge of Light, Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA Smoke & Mirrors, AF Projects, Los Angeles, CA the blue water was only a heavier and darker air, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA the trees turned to shadows in a grey fog, There-There, Los Angeles, CA
2018
A Matter of Course, The Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University, Orange, CA As You Like It - C’est Comme Vous Voulez, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA
2017
the windward side off the island, MAMA, Berlin, GermanyBerlin Art Link, May 2017 elsegundissimo, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CAEl Segundo Museum of Art, Virtual Exhibition, March 2017
2016 for a moment the concrete felt soft and warm, AiOP, New York, NYAiOP Archive, September, 2016 for a moment, it scraped, then cooled, the feet, LAXART, Los Angeles, CALAXART Event Archive, March, 2016 Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Los Angeles, CAGreat Moments from Rob Pruitt’s Flea Market, Carly Eiseman, February 2016 the nature of breathing in salt, MAMA, Los Angeles, CACole Sternberg Goes Under the Sea to Find His Art, Flaunt Magazine, April 2016
2015 are the green fields gone, the high seasAre the Green Fields Gone?, Official Website, 2018 a moment near the sea, MAMA + ARTed House, East Hampton, NYCole Sternberg’s Arted House is Now on View in the Hamptons, Autre Magazine, May 2015
2014 Erection, MAMA, Los Angeles, CA Artist Cole Sternberg at MAMA Gallery in Los Angeles, Autre Magazine, December 2014 International Friendship Exhibition, Primary, Miami, FLPrimary Projects’ “International Friendship Exhibition”: American Kitsch Glorified, Miami New Times, December 2014 Home, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CAOn View: Home is Where the Art is At, The Architects Newspaper, December 2014
2013 Art Works, e105 Gallery, Berlin, Germany a moment in the sun, ARTed House, Wainscott, NYA Moment in the Sun, Whitewall Magazine, September 2013 all his strength was concentrated in his fists, including the very strength that held him upright, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CODavid B. Smith Gallery Exhibition Announcement, March 2013
2012 you'll miss your riding lesson tomorrow, Primary Projects, Caruso Art and Flaunt Magazine, Miami, FLCole Sternberg’s you'll miss your riding lesson tomorrow set for 12/7, Broadway World, December 2012 Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles Nomadic Division Exhibition Announcement, March 2012 All in for the 99%, Ace Museum, Los Angeles, CAAll in for the 99% Exhibition Announcement, March 2012 Salon de Notre Societe, Primary Projects, Miami, FL Group Exhibition, Deutsche Telekom (Detecon), Cologne, Germany Group Exhibition, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, COExhibition Announcement, Denver Arts, February 2012
2011 Here Lies Georges Wildenstein, Primary Projects, Miami, FL I was here for just a moment, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, COCole Sternberg, I was here for just a moment, Leanne Goebel, Exhibition Essay, April 2011
2010 One on One, Hochhaus Hansa (a Ruhr.2010 Museum), Dortmund, GermanyCole Sternberg Featured at Hochhaus Hansa, The Art Reserve, October 2010 100 Artists See Satan, Grand Central Arts Center, Cal State Fullerton, Santa Ana, CAArtistic License, Inside CSFU, June 2010 Group Exhibition, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, COGroup Exhibition Part 2, Arrested Motion, March 2010 Transparenz, Detecon (presented by e105 Gallery), Bonn, Germany
2009 and those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music, American University Museum, Washington, DCAmerican University Museum Exhibition Announcement, December 2009 New Works, Kinsey/DesForges, Culver City, CANew Works, Just Kinsey/DesForges, Culver City, CA
Publications the constitution, the free republic of california, 2021 my first summer in the sierra, words by John Muir, imagery and design by Cole Sternberg, hat & beard press, 2021 the nature of breathing in salt, hat & beard press, 2019 the windward side of the island, MAMA, 2017 for a moment it scraped then cooled the skin, LAXART, 2016 all his strength was concentrated in his fists, including the very strength that held him upright, 2013 And those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music, 2010, Chronicling the exhibition of the same name at the American University Museum Cole Sternberg Paintings, 2008, Chronicling on canvas works from 2002–2008
References
External links Cole Sternberg Website