COCKY, the catalog, is a documentation of an exhibition that occurred from November 19, 2010 through Saturday, December 4, 2010. It was a conversation between the artist and his critics over the past seven years of creating work. This dynamic new body of work demonstrates Shumate’s mastery of storytelling while merging new contemporary pieces with the classical concepts from DuChamp to Ruscha. The semi-autobiographical show includes an exciting variety of multimedia experiences for its viewers. Central to the exhibition is the anthology of a contemporary cock.The familiar rooster, icon of domesticity chosen for both its regality and absurdity, takes on a multitude of forms throughout the exhibition. Each piece is a rhetorical answer to today’s artistic questions of criticism, aesthetics, and concepts- and finds humor in the sincerity of its execution.
Multimedia artist Anthony Thompson Shumate has an M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Houston (2005) and a BFA from the University of Texas in San Antonio (2001). Notable accomplishments for this award-winning artist includes a solo exhibition at Art League Houston, a 2006 New Works Fellowship for Emerging Artist from the former Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, a collaborator on a public art installation at the University of Houston - Sugarland, an ArtPix Grant for Las Pozas: Steps and Falls, a multimedia experience produced in partnership with photographer/videographer Robert Ziebell. Shumate has exhibited extensively throughout both Texas and the United States.