Andrea M. Coates
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Thank you to Megan Grisolano and her team for the interview and visual story.
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STATEMENT
As a child, dressing up in costumes, wearing masks, performing, and playing make-believe were all ways of exploring my imagination and alternate realities. Its real application grew my confidence and allowed me to experiment with identity and creativity. As an adult and an artist, I still practice persona play. I create works that investigate make-believe by using fashion and beauty images as a vehicle for idealized fantasy. Pretending now is way to tackle anxieties of being a woman, having an autoimmune disease, and losing loved ones. My work is a way for me to contemplate vulnerability and power, hiding and revealing, presence and memory.

Since photography’s first application in advertising, the use of the body to sell commodities has evolved from a prop for products into a packaged ideal itself, influencing gender roles and performance, fashion, and socially constructed body images. During my process of making, I contemplate the body’s realities and failures existing within this space of fabricated images.
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In addition to using visuals from mass media, my work also incorporates  family members’ clothing and accessories as a personal yet flawed medium. Far from the expensive, glamorous products in the fashion shots I reference, the family heirlooms are worn, aged, and imperfect, echoing the past life of the wearer. My digital photomontage process combining the new and old is important in crafting the images, which appear as traditional photo still lifes, but are, rather, a surreal, constructed collage.
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EDUCATION

MFA: Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis (2015)
BA: Art Studio, School of Art and Visual Studies, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, magna cum laude (2007)
BA: Integrated Strategic Communications, School of Journalism and Telecommunications, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, magna cum laude (2007)
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EXHIBITIONS

2019

Hen House Presents: Tiny Show 2, Good Fast Cheap DC, Washington, DC
NJC: Works on Paper
, LBIF, Long Beach Island, NJ (juried by Dr. Louis Marchesano, senior curator of Drawing, Prints, and Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Cut & Paste, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY
XX/9 Fisch Haus Invitational, Fisch Haus, Wichita, KS

2018

Angad Arts Hotel, grand opening exhibition, St. Louis, MO
Art St. Louis XXXIV, Art St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Art Through the Lens, The Yeiser Art Center, Paducah, KY
Clearly Human, St. Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis, MO
All That Glitters, Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg, WA
Photography 6, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO

2017

National Juried Competition: Works on Paper 2017, LBIF, Long Beach Island, NJ (juried by Jane Panetta, Associate Curator of Drawing, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC) 
Video Projection, Public Media Commons, St. Louis, MO
ATTACH FILES, 50/50, Kansas City, MO
The Video Show: 4th International Exhibition of Video and Digital Media Installation, Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg, NJ

2016

Fluid Bound, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, IL
The Door to the Invisible Must Be Made Visible, Mount Analogue, Seattle, WA
10x10x10, Tieton Arts and Humanities, Tieton, WA; catalog (juried by Adam Gildar, owner and director of Gildar Gallery; Susanna Crum, Assistant Professor of Fine Art - Printmaking at Indiana University Southeast; and Rodolfo Salgado, co-founder and director Calliope Arts)
Dank Memes, Non-Fiction Gallery, Art Rise Savannah, Savannah, GA (video in collaboration with Dane Dickmann)
National Juried Competition: Works on Paper 2016, LBIF, Long Beach Island, NJ (juried by Carter E. Foster, Curator of Drawing, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC)
Creatures, Art St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
How I Identify, Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA

2015

2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (catalog- view here)

2014
Parabola, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Not Responsible for Accidents: Immediate Works on Paper, The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, St. Louis, MO
le Premiere étage, Cecille R. Hunt Gallery, Webster University, Webster Groves, MO
Disruption of Permanence, Bomb Door, St. Louis, MO
2014 MFA First-Year Exhibition, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Ruin and Renewal, Student Show by RARA @ Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO

2013
Tales They Told Us, LAL @ Loudoun House, Lexington, KY

2012
Bluegrass Biennial, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY
Pen and Sword, Games + Learning + Society Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
New Country: Ruralism in Contemporary Art, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY
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PUBLICATIONS

2019
Chaleur Magazine, October 2019; New Jersey 
The DollHouse, 
Issue 2; Columbus, OH
​Hot Metal Bridge, 
Issue 24; University of Pittsburgh  

2018
From Whispers to Roars, Vol. 1, Issue 2; Colorado 

2017
Synesthesia Magazine, Vol. 4, Issue 1: Body Sex; United Kingdom

2016
The Spectacle, Issue No. 3, Washington University in St. Louis Departments of English, Creative Writing, and Visual Art

2015
2015 MFA Thesis Catalog, Spring 2014; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
2015 MFA Thesis Exhibition: Andrea Coates, Palette Scrapings: the Official Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Blog, Summer, 2015 - read it
Island Press at Washington University in St. Louis: video interview- watch it
Please Hold Magazine, "Feminine Shame" Issue, Spring 2015; St. Louis, MO
Synecdoche Magazine, Winter 2014 - 15; Brown University, Providence, RI
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PRESENTATIONS

2019
"Image Making", Visiting Artist, Heather Bennett's art and feminism class; Washington University, St. Louis, MO

2018
"Image Making and Pretending", Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

2015
Thesis Defense: "Fabricated Images and Bodily Failures", Washington University, St. Louis, MO

2014
Panel Discussion for le Premiere étage, Webster University, Webster Groves, MO
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HONORS

The Milliken Scholarship, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts (2014 - 2015)
Graduate School of Art Scholarship, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts (2013 - 2014)
The Alpha Delta Sigma Honorary Society, of the American Advertising Federation
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AWARDS

Honorable Mention: LA Underground Film Forum, Los Angeles, CA (2018)
Juror's Choice: Photography 6, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO (2018)
EMMY NOMINATION: Mid-America Emmys. For "How do you use your PBS KIDS Resources?", Nine PBS KIDS Interstitial (2017)
EMMY NOMINATION: Mid-America Emmys. For Community/Public Service PSA, Hangin' With Mr. Z (2016)
Merit: Bluegrass Biennial, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY (2012)
ADDY, Gold: AAF Lexington. For mixed media campaign The Nude (2012)
ADDY, Silver: AAF Lexington. For mixed media campaign Woodland Art Fair (2012)
ADDY, Silver: AAF Lexington. Contributor for public service, TV spot Woodland Art Fair (2012)
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senior Manager, Graphic Design: Brado (2019 - Present)
Adjunct Professor:
Digital Art Studio, St. Charles Community College (2018 - Present)
​Graphic Designer: 
LUME Institute (2018 - 2019)
Visiting Artist: Laumeier Sculpture Park (2018)
Visual Storyteller, Graphic Designer: American Graduate and Nine Network of Public Media, St. Louis (2015-2017)
Digital Graphics Assistant: For Dario Robleto, Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist, Island Press, Washington University in St. Louis (2017-2018)
Teaching Assistant: John Early, Adjunct Lecturer, 2D Design & Drawing, Washington University in St. Louis (2015)
Shop Assistant: Tom Reed, Master Printer, Island Press, Washington University in St. Louis (2014)
Artist Assistant: Cheryl Wassenaar, Associate Professor and Chair, Design, Washington University in St. Louis (2014)
Graphic Designer: Neogen Corporation (2012 – 2013)
Artist / Concept Artist / Designer / Storyboard Artist: Judd Films (2011 - 2013)
Marketing Director / Graphic Designer / Event Coordinator: Lexington Art League (2008 – 2012)
Curatorial Assistant: The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky (2008)
Creative Services Manager and Graphic Designer: Kentucky Kernel (2004-2007)
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VOLUNTEER POSITIONS

Committee Member: Ready by 21 St. Louis (2016)
President: Graduate Art Organization, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis (2014-2015)
Symposium Co-Organizer: Failure and the Artist: a Graduate Art Organization Student Symposium (2014-2015)
Delegation Representative for Washington University: Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities' Emerging Creatives Student Summit, VCU (2015)
Council Member: Art and Design Student Advisory Council (2014-2015)
President-Elect, Treasurer: American Advertising Federation Lexington (FY13)
Treasurer: American Advertising Federation Lexington (FY12)
Judge: Kentucky Association for Government Communicators Awards (2010, 2011, 2012)s
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