Petah Coyne is a contemporary sculptor and photographer best known for her large and small scale hanging sculptures and floor installations. Working in innovative and disparate materials, her media has ranged from the organic to the ephemeral, from incorporating dead fish, mud, sticks, hay, black sand, specially-formulated and patented wax, satin ribbons, silk flowers, to more recently, velvet, taxidermy and cast wax statuary. Unafraid to confront a range of subjects, or tackle contemporary themes, Coyne’s innate dualities are transposed in the dichotomous themes of her work: transformation and constancy; life and loss; beauty and darkness.
Throughout her oeuvre Coyne derives her inspiration, as with her media, from diverse sources — from literature and film, world culture and the natural environment, and the artist’s own personal biography.
Select awards include the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award, The Rockefeller Foundation Award, three National Endowment for the Arts Awards, Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, and New York Foundation for the Arts Award.
Born in Oklahoma City in 1953, Coyne currently lives in New York and is represented by Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, Nunu Fine Art, Taiwan, and Nancy Littlejohn Fine Arts, Houston.
