Morgan Lehman Gallery is pleased to announce Nicole Cohen’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, titled Domestic Concerns. The exhibition will open on December 12, 2013 with a reception for the artist from 6 – 8pm, and will run through January 25, 2014. Inspired by the artist’s ongoing investigation of historical interiors and the interplay of new technologies, Domestic Concerns comprises video installation, vintage magazine collages, and large-scale reflective prints.
In her video animations, Cohen appropriates images of period rooms, such as the Donald Judd Foundation library (Marfa, TX) for Library, 2013, the French Rococo period room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY) for Champagne Room, 2013, and the Hotel de Voyeur (Paris, France) for Smoking Room, 2012, among others. Cohen’s interventions transform these otherwise still images by unleashing digital animations within the spaces. The artist infuses each space with floating bubbles, rising smoke, or blowing papers which add narrative, mystery, excitement and even humor. The videos trespass virtually into history, creating a reality that overlaps the past with the present.
In Cohen’s collages, which are de-constructed from vintage interior design magazines, the viewer slowly pieces together the imagery into a new order. These works reference Abstract Expressionism, particularly the work of David Smith and Mark di Suvero, as Cohen creates phantom-like minimalist sculptures that emerge from the images. Inspired by her fascination with interiors and how we relate to them, the artist has editioned large-scale prints where the viewer simultaneously sees the vintage imagery as well as their own reflection, effectively allowing them to enter the space. These prints also reference the fleeting nature of technology as the rooms are populated with once state of the art electronics, such as tube televisions with video news feed capabilities, VCRs, and stereo components, all now outdated and obsolete.
Interiors can inform our view of a particular time, giving insight on how to “perform” in those spaces. Cohen’s new work and interest in human social evolution encourages us to consider the historical and technological melding of spaces and how we interact with this visual history both real and remembered.
NICOLE COHEN received her BA from Hampshire College and her MFA from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Fabric Museum Workshop and Museum, NY Public Library, Los Angeles County of Art, Williams College Museum of Art, La B.A.N.K Galerie in Paris, at the J. Paul Getty Museum, American University Museum at Katzen Art Center in Washington D.C., and in numerous group exhibitions in Germany and in Asia. Her work is in many private collections and in public collections, such as the Williams College Museum of Art and The J. Paul Getty Museum of Art. Concurrent with her gallery exhibition, Cohen’s work will be included in a group exhibition, titled Censored, at Fehily Contemporary in Melbourne, Australia, which runs November 14 – 30. She lives and works in New York City.
