Diana Cooper

 

Diana Cooper was born in Greenwich, CT in 1964 and moved to New York in 1987. One-person exhibitions have been organized at Postmasters Gallery, NY (1999 and 1998).  Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Spaces in Cleveland (2000), at Rice University Art Gallery in Houston (1999), at Feigen Contemporary, NY (1998), and at the Edinburgh International Art Festival (1998).
When did it Happen?, 1999-2000
Mixed media on canvas, wall, and floor
Courtesy Postmasters Gallery, NY and the artist. Photo credit: Eileen Costa.
 

"My work grows out of the tradition of painting and drawing. Much of the drawn and painted surfaces derive from doodles which are process and image at the same time. In the work there is a relationship as well as a tension between the language of abstraction, doodle-based drawing and three dimensional structures.

I create visual hybrids. My pieces are a combination of two and three dimensional elements with the three dimensional structures extending across the wall and onto the floor. The two and three dimensional elements often suggest maps, charts, biological forms, technological imagery and quasi-architectural structures. In using these types of imageries, I intend to humanize technological forms as well as create an awkward relationship between the organic and the inorganic. I use felt tip markers, pompoms, felt, plastics, foam core, paper, aluminum tape and pipe-cleaners. Out of these materials, I make elaborate drawings and three dimensional constructions to convey a precarious balance between expectations and failures, between what is permanent and what is temporary.

The materials I use and the slap dash manner in which they are sometimes made places the work within the realm of the trivial and devalued, making the work seem absurd in a fine art context. Permanence, craftsmanship and traditional art materials are often forsaken for fragility, ephemerality, marginality and humor. Ultimately, I want to set up a dialogue between the trivial and the rational, the marginal and the heroic. My work is most compelling for me when it inhabits a place between absurdity and perfectionism."

 

Selected Bibliography

Dailey, Meghan. "Diana Cooper," Artforum, December 1999.

Fujimori, Manami. "Very New Art 2000," BT Japan, January 2000.

Schjeldahl, Peter. "Thanks for Painting," The Village Voice, March 17, 1998.

Simpson, Bennett. "Digit et al." Artbyte, August/September 1998.

Smith, Roberta. "Diana Cooper",The New York Times, September 17, 1999.

 

Catalogue Essays from the Writing Project

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