Carole A. Feuerman (1945) is an American superrealist sculptor born in Hartford, Connecticut. She is best known for her figurative sculptures depicting swimmers and dancers. Feuerman is the only woman to sculpt in this style, creating both indoor and outdoor works that are painted lifelike.
In the mid-1970s, Feuerman was creating 3D illustrations for magazine covers and world tour books, featuring rock stars like the Rolling Stones and Alice Cooper. In 1975, she did her first life casting for the cover of the National Lampoon.
In the late 1970s, Feuerman began creating fragmented erotic works, adding a new dimension of complexity to her art. She was, and still is today, a narrative artist, instilling her sculptures with representative meaning and storytelling elements. Her works go beyond what fools the eye, inviting viewers to complete the story. In the 1980s, hypothesized by postmodernist thought, she left the fragment behind and began to create full-figure realistic sculptures.
Her passion for water and the ocean stems from her childhood memories spent at the beach. Feuerman describes the sensation of water droplets on her skin after swimming and the intricate patterns they formed as captivating. The beach became her sanctuary—a place of escape and tranquility. It was during a beach outing with her children that she encountered a swimmer with water droplets streaming down her face, radiating a sense of pride and accomplishment. This encounter catalyzed her first swimmer sculpture titled Catalina (1978).
Selected exhibitions include Park Ave, the Seaport, and Central Park in New York, Art d’ Egypte in Cairo, the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Palazzo Strozzi Palace in Florence. Her sculptures are also in the permanent collections of thirty-four museums, as well as the cities of Sunnyvale, CA, and Peekskill, NY. Feuerman’s works are featured in the private collections of Steven A. Cohen, Former President Clinton, Dr. Henry Kissinger, and Malcolm Forbes, among others. Additionally, she has taught, lectured, and given workshops at institutions like the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum.
In recognition of her contributions to the arts, Feuerman has received the Lifetime Achievement 'Goddess Artemis' Award from the European American Women's Council (EAWC), First Prize at the Huan Tai Hu Museum in Changzhou, China, Best in Show in Beijing, China, the Amelia Peabody Award, First Prize at the Beijing Biennale, and the Medici Award in Florence, Italy.
In 2011, she founded the Carole A. Feuerman Sculpture Foundation. She lives and works in New York.
Artist Statement:
“Through my sculptures, I convey my feelings about life and art. It is far easier for me to express my emotions through sculpture than through words. I portray the inner life of each image I create, to capture the passion and sensuality of my subject. In this way, my work speaks to the viewer, evoking both an emotional and an intellectual response”.