Over 32 years, Cole has received 31 grants, 66 art awards, and 51 teaching honors. Recent accolades include the 2025 Outstanding Retired Art Educator of the Year (GA Art Education Association), 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award (Salem Bible Church), and 2023 "Most Notable Georgian" (Georgia Trend). Other honors include the 2022 MOCA GA Working Artist Fellowship, 2020 Georgia Governor’s Award, 2020 Brenda and Larry Thompson Award, 2019 Nexus Award, and 2018 Arkansas Black Hall of Fame induction. Teaching awards include Southeastern Region National Art Educator of the Year (2004), Georgia Secondary Art Educator of the Year (2003), Turner Broadcasting Super Teacher (1998), and Teacher of the Year at Westlake High (2013), Woodland Middle (1990), and Camp Creek Middle (1985).
Featured in 500+ exhibitions and 141 publications (Forbes, Washington Post, The Guardian, Sculpture), Cole has created 47 public works, notably a 15-story 1996 Olympic mural. His work resides in 4,800+ collections, including the Smithsonian NMAAHC, National Gallery of Art, High Museum, Phillips Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, Detroit Institute of Arts, Clinton Library, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Georgia Museum, Ogden Museum, Driskell Center, Columbus Museum, Dayton Art Institute, Arts & Science Center (Pine Bluff), and IBM. Private collectors include Michael Jordan, Monica Pearson, and Terry McMillan.
Artist Statement
In Toure’s book, “Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?” he defines the term “post-blackness” as a way for African American artists to be identified such that their work can be seen beyond the sociological/stereotypical definition of “Black Art.” Early in this book, he talks about the freedom that New Blacks have to be themselves without feeling as though they are tethered to a past that they do not agree with or one that they feel they are not a product of. Truth is my work is a colorful reminder of promises still unkept, imperialism still institutionalized, and stealth deceit that has stolen the dreams and birthrights of twenty generations of a once proud people. It stands in contrast to the canon just as Norman Lewis’ work stood in contrast to those who framed early abstract expressionism.
When I turned eighteen years old, my grandfather told me about a tree on his property where African American men had been lynched by their neckties on their way to vote. The experience left a profound impression. I am personally tethered to this inescapable memory.
Since 1992, my art has been based on the relationship between sight sound and color which deals with music from the African American community such as jazz, rap, hip hop, gospel, and blues. Thus, my work is rooted in a place of targeted tragedy. Its curvilinear twists, knots, and loops are fed by the energy found in the souls of ALL those who toil and triumph everyday against the odds and against the unheralded tragedies of life. My work is a universal story with both hero and villain, good and evil. The narrative is embedded like html code. It is not visible to the eye, but it can be decoded...
