Brian Cooper
cooperkazan@gmail.com or earthlikeplanets@gmail.com
Education:
MFA 2002 Studio Art University of Southern California
BFA 1995 Studio Art San Francisco Art Institute
Awards/ Honors:
2009 West Prize Acquisition Finalist
2000- 2002 USC Graduate Teaching Assistantship Award
Exhibition Record:
2023
“No Time Like the Present”, Praz-Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA
“Things Thinking”, Rory Devine Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
Nomad 2, Torrance, CA
$400 Show, Rory Devine Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2021
“Funhouse: A Celebration of Los Angeles Painting”, Rory Devine Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2019
“Does and Donaughts” curated by Christina Leung, White Columns, New York, NY
“Dream House v.s. Punk House”, Serious Topics, Los Angeles, CA
“Group Show”', LAVA Projects guest curation, Berlin, DE
“Artist Book Show” Big Pictures Los Angeles guest curation, Berlin, DE
“Artist Book Show” Big Pictures Los Angeles , Los Angeles, CA
“Kamikaze show” curated by Barry Markowitz, Post @MiM gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“A Store Show”, Odd Ark LA, Los Angeles, CA
“Final Show”, Big Pictures Los Angeles , Los Angeles, CA
2018
“Tiny Men on Tits and Friends”, Chimento Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
“Fresh Start”, Lava Projects, Los Angeles, CA
L.A. Zine and Art Book Bazaar, Museum as Retail Space, Los Angeles, CA
Independent Art Book Fair, Los Angeles, CA
8 Ball Zine Fair (LA Pages Fair), Los Angeles, CA
“Edge of Today”, Launch LA, Los Angeles, CA
“Divided Brain”, Lava projects, Los Angeles, CA
“Brian Cooper and Tim Rogers” SB Valley College, San Bernardino, CA
2017
The Hut at Cape Royds, Startup Art Fair, Hollywood
“Far Bazaar”, Cerritos College, Los Angeles, CA
Faculty Show, LACHSA, Los Angeles, CA
Faculty Show, SBVC, San Bernardino, CA
2016
The Hut at Cape Royds, Satellite Art Show 2016, Miami Basel
Scope Miami, BG Gallery, Miami, FL
“Sleepless: The Music Center After Hours at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion”, Los Angeles, CA
How High, Left Field Gallery curated by Ryan Travis Christian, San Luis Obispo, CA
Consort, Artshare LA, Los Angeles, CA
La Estacion Arte Contemporaneo, Chihuahua Me
LABo por Venezuela, Carlos Blanco Studio, Bogota, Columbia
2015
Forgetting The Future- Entropy in the Reflective Age, Torrance Museum of Art, Torrance, CA
Head Space, 2 person show with Tanya Batura, Jaus Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
Ducks L.A., Curated by Ryan Travis Christian, Minotaur Projects Space, Los Angeles, CA
6H to 8B Artists who draw in Los Angeles, Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Hysterical Friction: Works on Paper from JAUS LA, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Dirty Minds: Life on Earth, curated by Thomas Kidd, BG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
i:23 Yokahama Triennale, curated by Kio Griffith, Tokyo and Yokahama, Japan
Ducks, curated by Ryan Travis Christian, Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013
Archaic Revival,curated by Dani Tull, Zic Zerp gallery, Rotterdam, NL
Print Room, the Archaic Revival Review, Rotterdam, NL
Art Bands Showcase, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
2012
Fuel for the Fire, Temporary Space and Human Resources LA, Curated by Dawn Kasper,
New York, NY
Holodeck, Post Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Against The Grain Charity Auction, Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Faculty Show, Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Faculty Show, Clara and Allen Gresham Gallery, San Bernardino, CA
2011
Urban Construction, Art Gate Gallery, New York, NY
Nothing to Say, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
T-shirt revival night, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Breaking New Ground, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Cities: Visionary Places, curated by Camilla Boemio, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
2010
Show 2, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Incognito, Santa MonicaMuseum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
Woodie, the Attic, Art Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair
Depthless, Stadler and Waldorf, Los Angeles, CA
2009
Friends of Sky, Circus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
West Prize Exhibition, The West Collection, Oaks, PA
Next Art Fair, The West Collection, Chicago, IL
Lovable Like Orphaned Kitties and Bastard Children, Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
Back Yard, Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
On the Down-Low, The Attic, Los Angeles, CA
Invite, Circus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2008
Cosmos Factory, curated by Brad Eberhardt, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Affordable Art Fair, NY, NY, Sam Lee Gallery
Some Paintings, L.A. Weekly Biennial, Track16 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2007
Intersection, sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Dynasty, Gallery MC, New York, NY
Concrete, Eagle Rock Center for the Arts, Los Angeles, CA
Stars on Vine, Aiden Riley Taylor Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005
New Work, San Bernardino Valley College Art Gallery, San Bernardino, CA
Quickening, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ
2004
Project room, Sweeney Art Museum at UC Riverside, Riverside, CA
High Anxiety, Gallery C, Los Angeles, CA
LA Raid, de Parrel, Amsterdam, NLD
Southwestnet: Phx/LA, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Phoenix, AZ
2003
Meltdown, Acuña Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Unnatural, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Halloween Show, Practice Space, Los Angeles, CA
2002
Comfort Control, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Selected Collections:
The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Los Angeles, CA
The West Collection, Oaks, PA
The Marriott Hotels Collection, Los Angeles, CA
Bibliography:
Artillery Magazine, September 2023
Hi Fructose, January 2023
Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles, Nov. 2021
KCRW, Nov. 2021
Hi-Fructose, Sept. 2021
Hi-Fructose, March 2021
Hi-Fructose, May 2020
Art and Cake, June 10th, 2019
Art and Cake, December 1st, 2018
Art and Cake, January 27th, 2018
Daily Serving, Fan mail: Brian Cooper, March 2017
Be-Art Magazine, March 2015
Fabrik Magazine, April 2015
Hi-Fructose, July 2014
Sick Of The Radio.com, Studio Visit: Brian Cooper, Feb. 20th, 2013,
Beautiful Decay, November 6, 2012,
Juxtapoz.com, Jan. 3rd, 2011, preview of nothing to say at Guerrero Gallery,
Booooooom.com, Jan. 14th, 2010, Jeff Hamada,
Beautiful Decay, “Book 3”, Spring 2010,
Sycamore Review, issue 22.1, Spring 2010,
Rojo Magazine, ®kyoi, breach dynamics, Sept. 2009,
Beautiful Decay, May 19th, 2009 Fei Liu,
Drawn.ca, June 4th, 2009,
Artillery Magazine, Nov./Dec. 2008, vol. 3 issue 2, Cosmos Factory, Carrie Patterson,
Artweek, Dec. 08/Jan. 09, vol.39, issue 10, Cosmos Factory, Mathew Timmons,
Cantanker, Excess, Issue 5, “Enhanced Interrogation of Brian Cooper” Sp. 2008,
L.A. Weekly, Jan.11th-17th 2008, Some Paintings, Track 16 Gallery,
New American Paintings No.73, Dec. 2007, The Open studios press,
Press Enterprise, Feb.28th, 2005, New Work, SB Valley College Art Gallery,
San Bernardino Sun, Feb. 21st, 2005, New Work, SB Valley College Art Gallery
UC Riverside Highlander, April, 2004, Project Room at Sweeney Gallery
Robotsinlove.blogspot.com, December 09, 2004, American Gothic
Arizona Republic, 5/16, 2004, PHX/LA at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Arizona
Sentinel Let’s Go! June 2004, PHX/LA at Scottsdale Museum of Contemp. Art
Scottsdale Republic, 4/28 2004, PHX/LA at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Java Magazine, May 2004, SouthwestNET: PHX/LA
ArtScene, May, 2003, Meltdown at Acuña Hansen, Los Angeles, CA
Artweek, April 2003, Unnatural at Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Bio
Brian Cooper's paintings, drawings and sculpture focus on relationships between consciousness and the material world. He plays with this idea through the use of trompe l'oeil painting techniques that lightheartedly confront the viewer to question the real. He couches these themes within imagery that is elegant and detailed while simultaneously humorous and uncanny. Together, contemplative ideas, transcendent beauty, and expressions of play call attention to a desire to unite the mundane with premodern ideas of sacredness as well as integrating science with the mind's drive for meaning.
His thirty years of work takes many forms. The first plays with ideas about mind and body with stylized images of stout torsos, void-like articles of clothing and patterns of tufted upholstery. The second focuses on the way we construct our realities with images of imagined monumental sculpture and assembled forms of wood and lumber.
Later periods include many forms of improvised drawing where irrational objects emerge from the imagination while inspired by several ideas from science and philosophy. Another series of works contemplate the nature of three dimensional space as a thing or object with blue grids placed over white cushion-like forms.
More recent work includes paintings of abstracted bodies intertwined in twisted bunches that suggest relationships that seem simultaneously affectionate and combative. Other recent paintings include small square images of curling pages of yellow phone books. These once ordered blocks of information are now obsolete and have gone feral. The series is inspired by Max Weber's theory of modernity where the pursuit of efficiency diminishes feelings of meaning and connectedness. His present focus are paintings of curtains and modular synthesizers. Their superimposed forms are metaphoric of perception that is similar to the Hindu notion of "maya" where our idea of time and space can be seen as an illusion.
A native of San Francisco, Cooper grew up in the shadow of California's legacy of psychedelia and experimentation through its art and music. He is also influenced by the strange humor of surrealism and the elegance of northern renaissance painting. Cooper also creates and performs music as Earth Like Planets which focuses on improvisation, repetition with lyrics about psychology and philosophy.
Cooper's work has been seen in Le Monde, Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose, Booooooom, Artillery, L.A. Weekly, Art and Cake, Beautiful Decay, New American Paintings, and the Arizona Republic as well as many other periodicals. He has drawings in several collections including the West Collection in Philadelphia, the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, The Cerritos College Permanent Collection, and Marriott Hotels Collection, as well as other private collections.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at galleries and museums like White Columns, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, and Greenpoint Terminal Gallery in New York City, several shows in Los Angeles at galleries like Praz-Delavallade, Acuna Hansen, Odd Ark, Big Pictures LA, Rory Devine Fine Art, plus exhibitions in Berlin, Japan, The Netherlands, Mexico, and Colombia. He has studied and worked with artists like Ken Price, Jim Shaw. Cooper received a B.F.A. from The San Francisco Art Institute and an M.F.A. from The University of Southern California. He currently lives in Los Angeles.