KING COBRA
(b. 1986)Biography
KING COBRA (documented as Doreen Lynette Garner) is a sculptor and performance artist whose practice confronts colonial histories of violence.
KING COBRA (documented as Doreen Lynette Garner) is a sculptor and performance artist whose practice confronts colonial histories of violence. Often made from silicone, pearls, synthetic hair, urethane foam, and other materials, COBRA’s sculptures primarily depict mutilated Black bodies, and frequently expose the medical malpractice and pathological infirmities experienced by Black women in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
COBRA's sculptures and performances reckon with the myth of white racial purity and biological superiority. Populated with dermal marks of poxes and plagues, these works reference the contagions white colonial settlers spread across the Americas during colonization and the transatlantic slave trade.
As a licensed tattoo artist, COBRA extends her practice to the inscription of her sculptures and the literal human body. Challenging racialized notions of beauty, she rejects the assertion that a white skin is easiest to ink. In her performances, she draws special attention to the senses, highlighting the corporeal precarity and intimate power dynamics inherent in the tattoo process.
COBRA holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park, Abron Arts Center, Pioneer Works, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, MoMA PS1, and the New Museum. Her work first entered the Studio Museum in Harlem collection in 2021.
KING COBRA
(b. 1986)Biography
KING COBRA (documented as Doreen Lynette Garner) is a sculptor and performance artist whose practice confronts colonial histories of violence.
KING COBRA (documented as Doreen Lynette Garner) is a sculptor and performance artist whose practice confronts colonial histories of violence. Often made from silicone, pearls, synthetic hair, urethane foam, and other materials, COBRA’s sculptures primarily depict mutilated Black bodies, and frequently expose the medical malpractice and pathological infirmities experienced by Black women in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
COBRA's sculptures and performances reckon with the myth of white racial purity and biological superiority. Populated with dermal marks of poxes and plagues, these works reference the contagions white colonial settlers spread across the Americas during colonization and the transatlantic slave trade.
As a licensed tattoo artist, COBRA extends her practice to the inscription of her sculptures and the literal human body. Challenging racialized notions of beauty, she rejects the assertion that a white skin is easiest to ink. In her performances, she draws special attention to the senses, highlighting the corporeal precarity and intimate power dynamics inherent in the tattoo process.
COBRA holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park, Abron Arts Center, Pioneer Works, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, MoMA PS1, and the New Museum. Her work first entered the Studio Museum in Harlem collection in 2021.