Cole Sternberg

Cole Sternberg is a Californian visual artist. Sternberg's media include painting, photography, sculpture, literature, room installations and film. Cole Sternberg Paintings, a hardcover book released in 2008 features six years of his painting. The 162 page book is listed as the first public release of Sternberg's work. Subsequent work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe.

Early life Sternberg was born in Richmond, VA and grew up in Saratoga, CA. He spent his early life drawing endlessly, but disliked the concept of being told how to perceive art, hence his educational pursuits led to B.A. degrees from Villanova University in business, and a Juris Doctor from American University. While at American, Sternberg received the university's Highest Award for Scholarship at the Graduate Level. He hung oil paintings in a bar in his spare time as a student at American.

Career Cole Sternberg's practice spans painting, installation, video, and writing, often unfolding as sustained series that interrogate pressing social concerns — from human rights and their entanglement with legal frameworks, to the fragility of the environment, to the manipulations and excesses of humankind.

His works are frequently understated or quietly subversive, propelled by lyrical visual strategies and an undercurrent of poetry. At their core lies a preoccupation with the dissonance between humanity’s ideals and humankind’s actions — a misalignment that, in his view, impedes genuine social evolution.

Collections His works are held by major collections throughout the world, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), Museum of Old and New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), American University Museum (AUM) and Deutsche Telekom.

Reception Cole's work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Whitewall Magazine, Issue Magazine, Autre Magazine, Hercules, Denver Post, Miami New Times, LA Weekly, Art Ltd., Architectural Digest, Angeleno, Sleek, Metal Magazine, Flaunt, ArtNet, Huffington Post, Cool Hunting, Santa Barbara Magazine, Huffington Post, Lum Art Magazine, Carla and Elephant.

Exhibition history

2025

as worldly doubts are cast away, Compound, Long Beach, CA the wind is heavy which blows between a horse’s ears, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

2023

a forest of thoughts in quick succession, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA Storage Wars, The Hole, Los Angeles We Are They: Glitch Ecology and the Thickness of Now, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, CA (Probably) All in My Mind, Verse, London, U.K. For Zoe Leonard: A Performance, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB), Santa Barbara, CA

2022

departed for the curve, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA to join the larger raindrop of the world, Yeo Workshop, Singapore The Medium as the Message, Wende Museum, Los Angeles, CA

2021

Threads and Tensions: The Interconnected World, Yeo Workshop, Singapore Freestate, El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), El Segundo, CA

2020

Show Me the Signs, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA Year One, Ojai Institute, Ojai, CA owls stirred the silence here and there, Pluto Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2019

The Edge of Light, Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA Smoke & Mirrors, AF Projects, Los Angeles, CA the blue water was only a heavier and darker air, Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA the trees turned to shadows in a grey fog, There-There, Los Angeles, CA

2018

A Matter of Course, The Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University, Orange, CA As You Like It - C’est Comme Vous Voulez, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA

2017

the windward side off the island, MAMA, Berlin, Germany elsegundissimo, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CA

2016 for a moment the concrete felt soft and warm, AiOP, New York, NY for a moment, it scraped, then cooled, the feet, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Los Angeles, CA the nature of breathing in salt, MAMA, Los Angeles, CA

2015 are the green fields gone, the high seas a moment near the sea, MAMA + ARTed House, East Hampton, NY

2014 Erection, MAMA, Los Angeles, CA International Friendship Exhibition, Primary, Miami, FL Home, El Segundo Museum of Art, El Segundo, CA

2013 Art Works, e105 Gallery, Berlin, Germany a moment in the sun, ARTed House, Wainscott, NY all his strength was concentrated in his fists, including the very strength that held him upright, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

2012 you'll miss your riding lesson tomorrow, Primary Projects, Caruso Art and Flaunt Magazine, Miami, FL Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Los Angeles, CA All in for the 99%, Ace Museum, Los Angeles, CA Salon de Notre Societe, Primary Projects, Miami, FL Group Exhibition, Deutsche Telekom (Detecon), Cologne, Germany Group Exhibition, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

2011 Here Lies Georges Wildenstein, Primary Projects, Miami, FL I was here for just a moment, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO

2010 One on One, Hochhaus Hansa (a Ruhr.2010 Museum), Dortmund, Germany 100 Artists See Satan, Grand Central Arts Center, Cal State Fullerton, Santa Ana, CA Group Exhibition, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO Transparenz, Detecon (presented by e105 Gallery), Bonn, Germany

2009 and those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music, American University Museum, Washington, DC New Works, Kinsey/DesForges, Culver City, CA

Publications the constitution, the free republic of california, 2021 my first summer in the sierra, words by John Muir, imagery and design by Cole Sternberg, hat & beard press, 2021 the nature of breathing in salt, hat & beard press, 2019 the windward side of the island, MAMA, 2017 for a moment it scraped then cooled the skin, LAXART, 2016 all his strength was concentrated in his fists, including the very strength that held him upright, 2013 And those who were dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music, 2010, Chronicling the exhibition of the same name at the American University Museum Cole Sternberg Paintings, 2008, Chronicling on canvas works from 2002–2008