Moki Cherry

Moki Cherry (born Monika Marianne Karlsson; 8 February 1943 – 29 August 2009) was a Swedish interdisciplinary artist and designer who worked in textiles, fashion design, woodworks, painting, collage, ceramics, and set design. Her practice traversed the worlds of art, music, and theater with diverse influences such as Indian art and music, Tibetan Buddhism, fashion, traditional folk arts and dress, abstraction, cartoons, and pop art. From 1977 she split her time living between Tågarp, Sweden and Long Island City in New York. Moki collaborated with her husband, the American jazz trumpeter, Don Cherry, throughout her lifetime – they performed in concerts as Organic Music, where her artworks were also displayed, and ran workshops for children. Her designs also appeared on Don's album covers and as costumes worn by him in concert.

Early life Moki Cherry was born Monika Marianne Karlsson on 8 February 1943 in Koler in Norrbotten, Sweden. Her father, Verner Karlsson, ran the station house and her mother, Marianne Karlsson, the post-office. When she was growing up the Karlsson family moved around the country to wherever her father was posted.

In 1962 Moki moved to Stockholm to study fashion and textiles at , where she specialised in illustration, pattern design, and design of clothes. She was an exceptional student and received high marks. She became friends with fellow artist Susanne Beckman while they were both studying at the school and they remained life-long friends.

In Stockholm, Karlsson met a Sierra Leonean student named Ahmadu Jah (1936–2018), who had received a scholarship to study engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. In 1964, their daughter Neneh Marianne Karlsson was born.

She met jazz musician Don Cherry in 1963 while he was on tour in Stockholm with Sonny Rollins. Moki and Don got to know each other more over the following years when Don returned to Stockholm to play concerts and eventually they became a couple and decided to build a life together.

Career Moki graduated from Beckman's in 1966 and traveled to New York to work in fashion and join Don who was living there at the time. In New York, she worked in painting, tapestry, and fashion design, and it was here that her and Don's lifetime of creative collaboration began. Her tapestries were used to create colourful environments for Don's performances and album artworks, such as for the covers of Brown Rice, Relativity Suite, and Organic Music Society, with the first album artwork she did being in 1969 a drawing on the front of Where is Brooklyn?. Moki was receiving recognition as a young artist-designer too and was offered a permanent design job with the photographer Bert Stern, but instead returned to Stockholm with Don and Neneh. The following year, Moki gave birth to her second child, Eagle-Eye in Stockholm, who is also a musician.

When Moki and Don returned to Sweden in 1967, they named their creative collaboration "Movement" and later renamed it "Organic Music" or "Organic Music Theatre". The first concert they did under this name was at ABF Huset in Stockholm where Moki designed the set and did live painting during the performance. In 1969, Moki and Don left Stockholm with their children to go to New York where they rented a loft in Manhattan and then a house in Congers. That same year the young family went on tour through France, Italy, and Turkey and lived together on the tour bus. From this moment of inception Moki and Don toured as Organic Music with other musicians throughout Europe. Moki played tambura in the Organic Music performances and her tapestries would surround the sets. The couple also ran music workshops for children across Sweden until 1977. Linder Sterling's expanded retrospective at Nottingham Contemporary in 2018.

Public collections Centre Pompidou, Paris, France Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy Muzeum Susch, Zernez, Switzerland Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden Moderna Museet, Stockholm Sweden

Group exhibitions 1971 Utopier och visioner 1871–1981, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden 1977 The Loft, NYC, USA 1980 Music in Art, DC Space, Washington, USA 1983 Earworks, Grommet Gallery, NYC, USA 1985 EEK, RIAH & Art Café, NYC, USA 1985 Icon, Todd Capp, NYC, USA 1985 Micro Wave, Now Gallery, NYC, USA 1986 Fusion Art, 57 Stanton Street, NYC, USA 1986 Jazzart, Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden 1986 Moving Installation, Freddy the Dreamer, NYC, USA 1986 Watermelon Show, Gallery Hirondelle, NYC, USA 1987 Animals, Todd Capp, NYC, USA 1996 Listening to Clay, Greenwich House Pottery, NYC, USA 2004 Tomarps Kungsgård, Kvidinge, Sweden 2006 Light My Ire Redux, Fusion Arts Museum, NYC, USA 2007 Galleri Persson, Malmö, Sweden 2008 Pool Art Fair, Chelsea Hotel, NYC, USA 2008 Tonie Roos, Moki Cherry, Susanne Beckman, Landskrona Konsthall, Landskrona, Sweden 2009 Galleri Kleerup, Stockholm, Sweden 2016 Ropen Skalla – Konsten åt Alla! (Heed the call – Art for all!), Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden 2016 Textila Undertexter, Marabouparken Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden 2017 Textila Undertexter (Textile Subtexts), Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden 2018 Air de Paris at FIAC, Paris, France 2018 House of Fame, expanded retrospective convened by Linder Sterling, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK 2018 Strange Attractors Vol. 2, curated by Bob Nickas, Kerry Schuss Gallery, NYC, USA 2019 A Seed's A Star, curated by Constance Tenvik, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

Productions 1966–1977 Organic Music tours & workshops with Don Cherry, Europe and USA 1967 Set design for premier of colour broadcasting, Television France, France 1969 Set design for TV show, Ankara, Turkey 1970 Opera with 100 students, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA 1971 Design and production for Children's Television, Piff, Paff, Puff, TV 2, Stockholm, Sweden 1972 Elefantasi, Children's radio program with Don Cherry, Sveriges Radio, Sweden 1974 Atelier des Enfants (Children's Workshop) with Don Cherry, commissioned by Pontus Hultén, Centre Beaubourg, Paris, France 1978–85 Costumes and set design for children's theatre, Octopuss Theater, Tågarp, Sweden 1979 Atelier des Enfants, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France 1980 Costume design and construction, Man and Amanda, TV 2, Stockholm, Sweden 1981 Theatrical costume and set design, Lördags Godis, Sweden 1987 Costumes and set design, Ruby's Lives, Written and performed by Lanny Harrison, Gallery Theatre, Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, USA