Andrea Cohen at Walter Maciel Gallery

LOS ANGELES, CA.- Walter Maciel Gallery presents a new series of work by New York based artist Andrea Cohen. 

For her third solo show at the gallery, Cohen introduces a series of highly textured and patterned hydrocal sculptures cast from bubble wrap, Styrofoam, plastic and foil. In previous work, Cohen has used these materials as her medium to make concurrent references to nature and industry. Now, through the casting process, the legacy of these materials is imprinted on her new work. The liquidity of pigmented hydrocal allows for varying effects when it cures; for example, foil and plastic folds generate both stone-like and fleshy forms in contrast to bubble wrap which leaves behind bold yet mutable patterns suggestive of pock-marked landscapes and perforated architectures. 

Cohen continues to build her sculptures as assemblages, working with play, improvisation, and a deep curiosity in the physicality of her material. She pours, tints, blends, folds, squashes, models, fragments, and assembles the components of each piece and works with a painterly palette that is both quiet and cheerful. Some of the works have a relationship to her previous sculptures made from carved Styrofoam and inspired by Chinese scholar’s rocks. Overall, it is clear that the new forms continue Cohen’s interest in Chinese landscape while at the same time are also influenced by the textures in the sculptures of Jean Dubuffet, Franz West and Paul Soldner. Cohen’s latest forms and processes, like her previous mixed media work, continue a dialogue between binaries, including control and exuberance, humor and contemplation, product and experiment. 

Cohen received a BA from New York University in 1993 and her MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1999. She currently teaches in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons New School for Design in New York City. Her large-scale sculptures were featured in the seminal exhibition, The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Museum of Art and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC in 2006-07. Cohen was featured as a Critic’s Pick in ARTnews magazine in the October 2006 issue. She has recently exhibited at Project 4 Gallery in Washington DC and the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University in Fullerton, CA. Cohen exhibited in group shows at Walter Maciel Gallery including Size Matters in 2012 and Political Draw in 2009 and at our auxiliary gallery in the Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood in 2010. Her work is included in many important private collections.