Alika Cooper returns to the gallery with a second solo show of paintings made of collaged fabric. Appropriating imagery from photographers who range from Irving Penn to Ellen Auerbach, the paintings use an innovative layering technique to move between abstraction and figuration in a way that simultaneously addresses the histories of painting and photography. Cooper deconstructs depictions of women in the art historical and fashion canons to analyze not only archetypal modes and representations of femininity, but larger ideas of perception as well. Her newest work examines the modernist fundamentals of image making, working with gradients of tone in grayscale, the color range essential to depicting depth and volume in black and white imagery. Cooper’s choice to use only readymade ‘fade’ pattern fabric allows her to work like a photographer to adjust images through light and contrast. She manipulates her collages like a mirror or camera lens, zooming in and out the imagery to offer different perspectives. For the duration of the exhibition, the room will be painted entirely in grayscale, adding an immersive layer to the work and its graphic foregrounding of the female body.
Alika Cooper – Glass
Past exhibition