Alex Cohen  - Artist Statement

I'm often curious of the ways painting illustrates movement.  The innate flow of the medium lends itself to describing and conveying action.  However, the static appearance of the final painted surface exhibits a sublime stillness.  The contradictory sense that an image can appear to move and be still at once is the sort of irrational experience that allows a painting to transcend its subject matter. 

The subjects of Johnnie Walker's Striding Man and Bonnie and Clyde represent icons of movement that pique the imagination.  Striding man serves as branding for Johnnie Walker whiskey by portraying a determined character perpetually moving forward with verve and panache.  The infamous outlaws, Bonnie and Clyde conjure a similar quality of perpetual motion as they hurtled recklessly from crime to crime, trying to stay ahead of the authorities.  Both Striding Man and Bonnie and Clyde blossom into legendary iconography that expresses a human compulsion to charge ahead.  For these and other characters in my paintings, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" is a race of potent ambitions.  Painting helps draw out the metaphysical speed of ambition as imagery. 

Born 1980 Newtown, PA.

Lives and works in Newtown, PA

Education:

      2005-2008       The University of Pennsylvania, BFA   

      2001-2006       The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Certificate

      1999-2001       George Washington University,  Eliot School of International Affairs.

Exhibitions:

      2010    "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"  Group Show,  SOMA NewArt Gallery, Cape May, NJ

      2010     "Fight or Flight" Solo exhibition, Rodger LaPelle's Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
      2009      Solo Exhibition, Rodger LaPelle's Galleries, Philadelphia, PA

      2008      Phillips Mill's 79^th Annual Art Exhibition, Solebury, PA

      2008      Art of the State of Pennsylvania, The State Museum, Harrisburg, PA

      2008      Juried Alumni Exhibition, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

      2006      Annual Student Exhibition,  The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

            Bucks County Art Exhibit,  The Sellersville Museum, Sellersville, PA
Awards:

2009       2^nd Prize At Cheltenham Arts Center 66^th Annual Awards Exhibition

        2008      First Prize in painting,  Getting the Hang of it -  Art of the State of Pennsylvania

        2005      Honorable Mention, Sabbath Prize for Figurative Painting - Tip of My Tongue - Annual Student Exhibition, PAFA

                     The Wallace Cadwallader Landscape Prize, Quilted Lot, Annual Student Exhibition, PAFA

        2006      2nd Place, Historic Yellow Springs Award for Landscape - The Quarry Long Solstice, Annual Student Exhibit, PAFA  

     2010-present       Hrefna Jonsdottir Gallery, Lambertville, NJ

     2008-present       Roger LaPelle Galleries, Philadelphia, PA

     2006-present       Riverbank Arts, Stockton, NJ

Publication:

     2008-present       Bucks County Herald, Monthly Art Columnist

Teaching Experience:

    2007-2008           George School, Newtown, PA.  Painting and Drawing teacher

    2000-2003           Seeds of Peace International Camp, Otisfield ME.  Art instructor