Justin Cooper is an artist and performer living and working in Catskill, Kingston, Brooklyn NY.
Contact email: nessiecoop@gmail.com
Statement:
Lines: The ways they delineate, create thresholds and cause thin spaces where things can exist and be indefinable for a brief moment before crossing over. My work is located in these liminal spaces and positions, dangling precariously between the hinged and unhinged. A relentless cross-pollination of media within my practice marks a restless search for these lines in both formal and conceptual manifestations. Whether drawn, spoken, or objectified, the lines I seek contain an energy that is both earnest and utterly deadpan. Mundane materials carve out a straight-faced existence alongside notions of the sublime, both simultaneously celebrating and cancelling out the other. Here an outpouring of abstract images and wholly recognizable objects are repositioned and subverted as unconscious signs to form a blurred language where unchained signifiers playfully resist coherent translation. I seek these unstable relationships that hover between the comedic and the disturbing according to circumstance. There is a chameleon approach to my work wherein objects, gestures, drawings, images, and videos are defamiliarized, looking to a self-contained context for definition. I am fascinated by incongruent moves that cause a mental misfire, a visual glitch, or a double-take and seek to visually and conceptually represent the spark that is created in these situations. But ultimately any apparent separation between poles is merely part of a wider unity, a nexus whose ultimate distillation is a simple line.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018 Oral Hallucinations, Albion College, Albion, MI
2016 Wallpapering the Infinite, Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
2015 Canopy, Living Arts; Tulsa, OK
Self-Titled, Storefront Ten Eyck; Brooklyn, NY
Contingent Doodle Relief, Rosenberg Gallery at Hoffstra University; Hempstead, NY
2014 Spreadsheet, Art in Buildings 55 Fifth Ave; New York, NY
Homestretchbody, Testsite; Austin, TX
2012 Board, Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
Thin Lines, Beta Pictoris Gallery; Birmingham, AL
2011Like You, Rocky Mountain School of Art and Design; Denver, CO
2010 Office Hours, solo project with Monique Meloche Gallery at Volta; Basel, Switzerland
2009 Paranormaldise, Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
2008 Thread, Gallery 400; Chicago, IL
2006 Middle Management, Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
Selected Exhibitions and Performances
2018
Yaddo Six, Trask Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Escape, John Michael Kohler Arts Center; Sheboygan, WI
Justin Cooper Presents: Justin Cooper, University of Wisconsin; Madison, WI
Winter Experiment: SAIC at MMG, Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
2015
Justin Cooper: Mowers of Ten, Art in Buildings 55 Fifth Ave; New York, NY
Comedy Night, Marlborough on Broome Street; New York, NY
2014
Economy Candy, Harbor Gallery; New York, NY
Terrarium, Roger Smith Hotel; New York, NY
2013
Backyard Paradise, Swampspace; Miami, FL
New York I Love You Sometimes, New York, NY
SkowheganPerforms! Socrates Sculpture Park; Queens, NY
2012
Under Construction, Hotel Particulier; New York, NY curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud
AfterImage, DePaul University Museum; Chicago, IL
Hiatus, The Urban Institute of Art; Grand Rapids, MI
2011
Pulp, Beta Pictoris Gallery; Birmingham, AL
NADA Hudson collaborative project with Jason Middlebrook and Monique Meloche Gallery/Dodge Gallery
2010
New Work; Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
Knock Knock: That Joke’s Not Funny Anymore, Fred Torres Collaborations; New York, NY
Production Site, Museum of Contemporary Art; Chicago, IL
2009
Here Not There, Museum of Contemporary Art; Chicago, IL
Nexus, Franconia Sculpture Park; Franconia, MN
The 7th Annual Midwestern Assorted Produce Snuff Shorts Film Triennial, Boots Contemporary Arts; St. Louis, MO
i(e)llusions, Lawton Gallery; Green Bay, WI
2008
Interior Monologue, Performance at the National Hotel; Miami, FL
Pedestrian, Art In Odd Places; New York, NY
Video Screening, AOT Gallery; Minneapolis, MN
Winter Experiment, Monique Meloche Gallery; Chicago, IL
i.e.llusions Only Blue Deer Lonely American (Illinois Arts Council Re-mix), Alogon Gallery; Chicago, IL
2007
Irrational Exhibits, Track 16 Gallery; Los Angeles, CA
i.e. Between, Harold Washington College; Chicago, IL
i.e.llusions, 1a Space Gallery; Kowloon, Hong Kong
Interiority, Hyde Park Arts Center w/ Contemporary Arts Council; Chicago, IL
curator Stuart Keeler
2006
Sight Unseen, Chicago Cultural Center; Chicago, IL
Working Frameworks, Cornell University; Ithaca,NY;Skylab Gallery; Columbus, OH;Columbia College;Chicago, IL
The World is Flat, Gallery Life Bomb; Berlin, Germany
18th Evanston+Vicinity Biennial, Evanston Art Center; Evanston, IL
Amorph!06 International Performance Art Festival; Helsinki, Finland
Pixel Dance ‘06 Video Festival, In Flux Art; Thessaloniki, Greece
Ballroom Blitz Grand Opening for The James Hotel; Chicago, IL
curator Stephanie Smith
Signal and Noise Performance and Video Festival, Video In Studios; Vancouver, BC
In Feed @ Blackwood, The Blackwood Gallery; University of Toronto in Mississauga, Ontario
Smoke and Mirrors: Photography and Performance, Ohio University; Athens, OH
An Incomplete Map of Everything, Links Hall; Chicago, IL
curator Mark Booth
Patheticize, Open End Gallery; Chicago, IL
2005
Pixelfest Video, Experimental Film, and Electronic Music Festival; Berlin, Germany
Uppsala International Film Festival; Uppsala, Sweden
Prog:Me Festival of Electronic Media; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rooftop Films Summer Series; Brooklyn, NY
Small Change Film Series; Philladelphia, PA
The School of The Art Institute of Chicago MFA exhibition; Chicago, IL
Portland Documentary and Experimental Film Festival; Portland, OR
Alchemy, Betty Rymer Gallery; Chicago, IL
Island Art and Video Festival, Prenelle Gallery; London, England
Spark Video 4.4 Screening, Spark Gallery; Syracuse, NY
This, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this, Gallery 2; Chicago, IL
2004
LA Shorts Film Festival, Arc Light Theater; Hollywood, CA
Emerging Illinois Artists, Maclean County Arts Center; Bloomington, IL
One Night Stand, PAC/Edge Festival; Chicago, IL
2003
10+10 2003 Colorado Biennial, Musuem of Contemporary Art; Denver, CO
curator Sydney Payton
Dreams and Dreammakers, Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas; Mexico City, Mexico
Sharks don’t ever sleep and they don’t have any bones, Museum of Contemporary Art; Boulder, CO
Grants/Awards
2009 Franconia Sculpture Park artist project grant
CAAP grant recipient
2008 Gallery 400 artist project grant
2007 Illinois Arts Council grant recipient
1a Space Artist in Residency grant
Skowhegan School of Painting and Drawing fellowship recipient
2006 Chicago Cultural Center Sight Unseen Festival artist project grant
Art 44/46 artist project grant
Working Frameworks artist project grant
Contemporary Arts Center artist project grant
Signal and Noise Festival artist project grant
James Hotel artist project grant
2005 Joan Mitchell Foundation (finalist)
2003 School of the Art Institute of Chicago merit scholarship recipient
Arts Bridge Scholarship recipient
Residencies
2017 Yaddo
2015 Art Omi
2013 Fountainhead; Miami, FL
2009 Djerassi Artist Residency; Woodside, CA
Franconia Sculpture Park Artist in Residence; Schafer, MN
2007 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Skowhegan, ME
1a Space Artist in Residency Program; Kowloon, Hong Kong
Selected Bibliography
Alex Javanovich. http://artforum.com/words/id=45196
Jason Foumberg. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/C-Notes/November-2012/Review-Justin-Coopers-Board/
Ritchie, Abraham. http://www.artslant.com/chi/articles/show/20407
Oh, Janet. http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/production-site/
Guest, Anthony Haden. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-11/the-worlds-funniest-art/
Veronica Gledhill. http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2009/12/art-basel-miami-2009-viktor-rolf-honored-at-the-webster/
Wolff, Rachel. Create and Conquer. CS Magazine. December 2009
Francis, Sean. Ones To Watch:4 Under 40. Chicago Tribune Magazine. April 2009
Waxman, Lori. Paranormaldise. Art Forum. May 2009
Schroeder, Amy. Paranormaldise. TimeOut Chicago. February 2009
Apple, Lauri. Paranormalsdise. Chicagoist (online interview). February 2009
Artner, Allan. Paranormaldise. Chicago Tribune. Feburary 2009
Gunn, Dan. Paranormaldise. New City. February 2009
Snodgrass, Susan. Thread. Art in America. September 2008
Foumberg, Jason. Eye Exam: Fantastic Antics. Newcity Chicago. March 11.
Wong, Kevin “It’s All An Illusion” September 28, 2007 South China Morning Post
On the Scene: Middle Management, Chicago Journal, Thursday, January 19, 2006
Ferrara, Annette. Review: Middle Management, www.flavorpill.net, January 21
Workman, Michael. Review: Middle Management: “Ladies Night”, New City, January 12, p 13
“Middle Management” January 10, 2006; Badatsports.com (podcast)
“Large Gourd” November 2006; The Chicago Reader
2003 Colorado Biennial: “10+10” January 14, 2004;The Denver Post
Education
2003 BFA University of Colorado
2005 MFA The School of the Art Institute of Chicago