Carol Szymanski
born in Charlotte, North Carolina
lives and works in New York
carol szymanski's art spans many media, from sculpture and painting to video and performance. She has become particularly known for a series of sculptures in the form of invented musical instruments, and particularly brass horns shaped from the alphabet, which she has been making since 1993. Szymanski was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Whitney Museum Studio Program, and lives and works in New York. Recent exhibitions and performances include You Pair How, signs and symbols, New York (2022); Singing in Unison: Part Seven, curated by Phong H. Bui and Cal McKeever, The Brooklyn Rail at Industry City, New York (2022); Phonemophonic Alphabet Brass Band with trumpeter jaimie branch, Park Avenue Armory, New York (2021); He Said, I Thought, signs and symbols, New York (2019); Pareidolia, Totah Gallery, New York (2018); The Phonemophonic Alphabet Brass Band, Winter Garden, New York (2017) curated by John Schaefer, WNYC New Sounds Live Series; Emergency Eyewash with Barry Schwabsky, Tanja Grunert Gallery, New York (2017); A Distance as Close as It Can Be, Elga Wimmer PCC, New York (2016); My Life is an Index, Tanja Grunert Gallery, New York (2015); and Pissing Against the Wind, or, Sketches on the Mental Drain on the Dead Banker, Guided by Invoices, New York (2012), which have received press attention in Artcritical, Art Press, Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and Time Out New York. She has been a recipient of numerous awards, including the Rome Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Szymanski has collaborated with numerous composers and musicians including Ben Neill, Ekmeles Ensemble, Betsy McClelland, Dewey Redman, and Wadada Leo Smith.
Between 2004 and 2014, Szymanski produced an email project, cockshut dummy, combining writing and images, excerpts from which have been republished in the art and literary periodicals Atlantica and Vanitas, as well as publishing cockshut offshoots, a 4-book series with Book Works, London. Since 2020, Szymanski has organized an ongoing project called the go-between, a participatory performance exploring the traditional art of matchmaking.
selected works
For inquiries and more information, please contact info@signsandsymbols.art.
gallery exhibitions
