Caralea Cole

Caralea Cole is an Associate Professor in Residence in the Department of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She received her undergraduate degree from OCAD University in Toronto, Canada and her MFA from UNLV.

Her educational background includes:

• Undergraduate: OCAD University, Toronto, Canada
• MFA: University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Cole's artistic practice centers on creating complex photographic images that both enchant and disturb viewers, with layered surfaces revealing experiences often lacking representation. Her work simulates dream or hallucinatory states that generate complex narratives without conventional closures. Influenced by her experiences living in Nepal, Indonesia, Romania, Turkey, and Morocco, her creative output explores cross-cultural differences, oppression, and trauma representation through visual media.

Her artistic trajectory demonstrates a progression from exploring universal themes of control and power in works like Gods and Heroes and An Immortality of Bliss toward deeply personal narrative transformation in Illuminated Manuscript, where she reclaimed the redaction process used against her in an institutional report following sexual harassment disclosure. This evolution shows increasing integration of personal experience with universal artistic statements addressing institutional power structures.

Her notable achievements include:

• NEA Award
• Canada Council for the Arts Award
• Banff Writing Studio Residency

Cole has exhibited her work in more than seventy exhibitions internationally, including Young Photographers at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Visual to Political at the NYU Photo Center, and disJointed at Maumau Gallery in Istanbul. She is currently completing her first novel, Dangerous Prey, which expands her artistic exploration into literary form, examining themes of death, fear, religion, salvation, and the human condition through a dreamlike narrative lens.