COOPER COLE is pleased to announce a two person exhibition featuring the work of American artists Devin Troy Strother and Gina Beavers.

Strother and Beavers exhibit a collection of work that relate to each other through lighthearted interpretation of the real. Using representational imagery, each artist’s work challenges the typical structure of painting and uses humour as a vehicle to access a response in the viewer. Devin Troy Strother’s paintings reference old master works and touch on social taboos and his experiences growing up in the United States as an African American. Using collage, paint and a variety of other mixed media, Strother’s paintings provide a mischievous, colourful approach to what are potentially a sensitive topic among most. Gina Beavers’ paintings are built from thick layers of acrylics in such a way that the paintings become 3-dimensional reliefs. Her subject matter is often sourced from internet based imagery. In this exhibition she will be showing what she calls her “Strong Paintings”, copied from image searches of an artist’s charcoal drawing, a stock-photo, a vintage photo, and a tourist photo. These images represent the heaviness, density and abstract nature of muscles and also directly relate to the weight of her paintings. Both Beavers and Strother’s work transform what is typically a 2-dimensional work into something incongruently sculptural. In the end their works both possess a three dimensional element, contradicting the materials used.

Devin Troy Strother (b. 1986, California, USA) received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design in 2009 and in 2010 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. He is currently represented by Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica and Marlborough Gallery, New York. He has held solo exhibition in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Copenhagen and has participated in group shows throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has been reviewed and published in Modern Painters, NY Arts Magazine, The Los Angeles Time, The New York Times, Time Out New York, and The Huffington Post. Strother lives and works between Los Angeles and New York, USA.

Gina Beavers (b. 1974, Athens, Greece) holds a BA in Studio Art and Anthropology from the University of Virginia, an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MS in Education from Brooklyn College. Recent solo exhibition include Clifton Benvento (New York), PACS (Brooklyn), Nudashank (Baltimore) and James Fuentes (New York). She has been reviewed and published in Artforum, Modern Painters, The New York Times, The New Yorker, amongst others. Beavers currently lives and works in New York, USA.

For additional information please contact the gallery:

info@coopercolegallery.com
+1.416.531.8000