Carole A. Feuerman

Biography

Carole A. Feuerman (born 1945) is an American sculptor and author working in Hyperrealism. She is one of the three artists credited with starting the movement in the late 1970s. She is best known for her iconic figurative works of swimmers and dancers. She is the only artist to make life-like outdoor sculptures and the only woman to sculpt in this style. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery – Smithsonian Institution; the State Hermitage Museum; the Venice Biennale; Galleria d’Arte Moderna; Palazzo Strozzi Palace and Palazzo Reale in Milan.

Growing up in New York, Feuerman was deterred from being an artist. She attended Hofstra University, Temple University, and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City to begin her career as an illustrator. During the early 70’s she went by the artist’s name Carole Jean, illustrating for The New York Times and creating album covers for Alice Cooper and the Rolling Stones, to name a few.

In 1981, Feuerman’s work was chosen for exhibition at the Heckscher Museum in New York. After this, she was invited to participate in the ‘Learning through the Arts Program’ at the Guggenheim Museum.

Feuerman received the Charles D. Murphy Sculpture Award in 1981. In 1982 she received the Amelia Peabody Award for sculpture. In 2016, she received the Best in Show Award for her sculpture ‘Mona Lisa’ by the Huan Tai Museum, and the sculpture was acquired for their permanent collection. Feuerman has also been awarded the Medici Prize by the City of Florence, the First Prize at the Beijing Biennale, and the Austrian Biennale, and in 2008 she received First Prize in the Olympic Fine Art exhibition in Beijing. The piece was acquired by the Olympic Museum.

She has taught, lectured, and given workshops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon Guggenheim Museum. In 2011, she founded the Carole A. Feuerman Sculpture Foundation. Her artworks are owned by eighteen museums, as well as in the collections of the City of Peekskill, New York, the City of Sunnyvale California, President and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Dr. Henry Kissinger, the Mikhail Gorbachev Art Foundation, Mr. Steven A. Cohen, Alexandre Grendene Bartelle, and the Malcolm Forbes Magazine Collection.

Feuerman’s public works have been displayed across the globe, including but not limited to: Central Park and SoHo, New York, l’ Avenue George V in Paris, Harbor City in Hong Kong, Milan, Rome, Giardino Della Marinaressa in Italy, New Bond Street, Canary Wharf in London, and Knokke Heist in Belgium. She lives in New York City and is the wife of Ronald Cohen, and the mother of Lauren Leahy, Sari Gibson, and Craig Feuerman. She has four grandchildren: Hannah Leahy, Sam Leahy, Isla Feuerman, and Kai Feuerman.

Artist’s Statement

Through my sculptures, I convey my feelings about life and art. It is far easier for me to express my emotions through sculpture than through words. I portray the inner life of each image I create to capture the passion and sensuality of my subject. In this way, my work speaks to the viewer, evoking both an emotional and an intellectual response.

My early hyper-realistic sculptures invite the audience to contemplate the intriguing dichotomy of reality in life and art. While my current work in metal is inspired by the idealized forms of ancient civilizations, in my trompe-l’oeil works, figures are portrayed as fragmented reality. Although only a portion of the body is presented, extensive detailing makes each figure come to life. In contrast, the classical subjects of my work in metal are realized through a technique I developed for dripping and pouring molten materials.

Throughout my artistic career, my style has undergone many transformations, but my passion for art and my love of creating art endure.