COOPER COLE is pleased to present As a Body, an exhibition that insists on the physical presence of the body, painting from life with all of its inconsistencies, unedited fragments and mutual dependencies. The exhibition, curated by Kari Cwynar, features recent work by seven artists: Mira Dancy, Olivia Dunbar, Allison Katz, Lauren Luloff, Jenine Marsh, Jody Rogac and Camilla Wills.
Think of the skin as interface between bodies, between real and material bodies. Bodies as surfaces but not without voice. What is the feeling of being a body? A body that processes, feels line and colour. Walking down a hot street, or looking at Matisse’s odalisques with cold, dead stares. Consider flesh rendered in oil paint as the ultimate fetish. There are tropes and there is the real texture of life. Paint, leather and language conjure skin, composing and de-composing subjectivities. Sweating is distribution, painting is note-taking, sculpture is gesture itself, bleach eats into fabric that moves in a nude breeze.
Mira Dancy (b. 1979, UK) received her MFA from Columbia University in 2009, and her BA from Bard College in 2001. She has exhibited at Night Gallery in Los Angeles, and throughout New York and Brooklyn at venues such as Sara Metzler Gallery, Bull and Ram, Kansas Gallery, and most recently at Regina Rex. Dancy currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Olivia Dunbar (b. 1988, Vancouver, Canada) received an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute and is a current resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten. In her work there is a vernacular understanding of composition – how things can be made unmade and excavated in order to be sensed in real time. Working across diverse media, Dunbar’s studio practice is context based and develops formal strategies such as replacement to navigate the when and why of identification. Recent presentations include act like u don’t know at c-o-m-p-o-s-i-t-e, Brussels, and read the room, you’ve got to at SALTS, Basel. Dunbar currently lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Allison Katz (b. 1980, Montreal, Canada) received her BFA from Concordia University and her MFA from Columbia University. She has exhibited internationally with solo and group exhibitions Chicago, Hamburg, London, Malmo, Montreal, Mexico City, New York, amongst others. Her work has been reviewed by publications such as Artforum, The New Yorker, New York Times, Texte zur Kunst. Katz currently lives and works in London, UK.
Lauren Luloff (b. 1980, Dover, USA) received her MFA in 2010 from Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York. She has exhibited at Halsey Mckay Gallery, East Hampton, USA; The Queens Museum, New York, USA; CB 1 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA and Tanya Bonakdar, New York, USA. Artist Lauren Luloff is currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York.
Jenine Marsh (b. 1984, Calgary, Canada) received her MFA from the University of Guelph in 2013 and her BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2007. Nationally, her work has been exhibited in numerous art venues including The Bakery, Vancouver; Cooper Cole Gallery, 8-11, G Gallery, Toronto; Ed Video, Guelph; Truck Gallery, Stride Gallery, Calgary; and Struts Gallery, Sackville, Canada. She has twice served as artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2009 and 2010, and other residencies include the Vermont Studio Centre in 2011, Alberta Foundation for the Arts’ Alberta Future Leaders programme, 2011 and Struts Gallery, 2010. Marsh lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Jody Rogac (b. 1981, Worcester, England) is a portrait and editorial photographer. She received her BFA in Visual Arts in 2006 form the Emily Carr University in Vancouver BC. Her most recent solo exhibition at Ed Varie in New York, “Pictures”, displayed a series of photographs from the past 3 years. She also recently published her first book “In Between” with AllDayEveryDay. Rogac currently lives and works in Brooklyn, USA.
Camilla Wills (b. 1985, Cheltenham, England) writes and works with video and print technologies. Recent projects (2014) include Logo of Absence, Camden Arts Centre, London; Voice ~ Creature of Transition, readings with Federica Bueti, organised by If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam; Bard Girls Can Fly, White Flag Projects, Missouri. She edited Moyra Davey’s recent book of essays I’m Your Fan, and works in the editorial team at Book Works, London. Wills currently lives and works in London, UK.
For additional information please contact the gallery:
info@coopercolegallery.com
+1.416.531.8000
