Nick Cave

Nick Cave (born February 4, 1959) is an American sculptor, dancer, performance artist, and professor. He is best known for his Soundsuit series: wearable assemblage fabric sculptures that are bright, whimsical, and other-worldly, often made with found objects. He also trained as a dancer with Alvin Ailey and often incorporates dance and performance into his works. His later sculptures have focused on color theory and included mixed media and large-scale installations. He lives in Chicago, Illinois, and directs the graduate fashion program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He continues to work on Soundsuits as well as works completed as a sculptor, dancer, and performance artist. His first career retrospective museum exhibition opened in May 2022 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and is currently on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, through April 2023. He received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in June 2022. Early life and education Nick Cave was raised in Fulton, Missouri, alongside seven brothers by a single mother who encouraged Cave's interest in fashion. His grandparents owned a farm in Chariton, Missouri, where Cave would sometimes help care for crops and chickens. He attributes much of his interests in found objects and assemblage to his childhood circumstances. Graduating from Hickman High School in 1977, he enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute, where he would study fiber arts and later earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982. In 1979, Cave met Alvin Ailey and spent that summer and several summers thereafter in New York, where he studied with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1982, he designed displays for the department store, Macy's, and worked professionally as a fashion designer while maintaining his interest in art and dance. In 1988, Cave earned his M.F.A. degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He also did some graduate coursework at the University of North Texas. After graduating from Cranbrook, he went on to teach in a fiber arts program at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1989. Since then, Cave has run a clothing company in Chicago where he designs, manufactures, and markets his own line of men's & women's clothing.