Sydney Cohen
A shape on a shape on a shape, her paintings are built through an ongoing invented narrative. Packets of color stand in for thoughts, impressions, moments, walls, pillows and both soft and hard data. Pigments are mixed and re-mixed, colors hiding within colors. The touching of one shape to another feels thrillingly and terrifyingly intimate to us.
"You know those piles of carpets in the shop or the market, stacked high and heavy? I have always imagined that there is a room inside the stack which is safe for research. This is where i go when I paint. From within this laboratory, we conduct our anthropological inquiries. Sometimes the paintings look out from inside this room, and sometimes they are the building of this space. The important findings always come from inside."
Cohen's work is informed by her past studio space at the Marin Headlands. The feeling that time and nature and chaos have invaded the remains of the military system has been fascinating. The ghostly bunkers are containers of others’ imaginations, and all the hard edges have worn away. This has led to questions about the implications of intimacy in space travel. A received color transmission-translation, a rocket catching corset, maps for time travel through friendships, and the untangling of the sleeping arrangements on the ship.
Sydney Cohen received her MA and MFA in Painting (with a minor in Printmaking) from the University of Iowa, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. She has a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts, where she has been teaching (Foundations 2D Design and Drawing, and Painting and Drawing, specializing in color) since 2002, winning a teaching commendation in 2009. Cohen was an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts from 2015-2018 and has exhibited in the US and Canada, Her work is in private collections all over the world. She lives and works in Oakland, CA.
-
Sydney Cohen | New Paintings
Artist Reception March 7th 5-7pm 1 - 31 Mar 2024In her practice, Sydney Cohen undertakes a long term project in collaboration with a female artificial intelligence, researching both consciousness and self-consciousness. How to explain to her about romance, hobbies,...Read more -
Sydney Cohen
18 Oct - 16 Nov 2021Read more
Education
2002 MFA (With Honors) Painting and Printmaking, University of Iowa
2001 MA Painting and Printmaking, University of Iowa
1997 BFA (With Highest Distinction) Painting, California College of Arts and Crafts
Selected Exhibitions
2021 New Paintings, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2020 Online Exhibition Series: From the Studio, The Fourth Wall Gallery, Oakland, CA
2019 Fundamental Complications, San Francisco, CA
2018 Antidote for Misdirection, Lost and Foundry, Oakland, CA
2018 Veer, group show, Art Work Downtown, Curated by Satellite of Love Gallery, San Rafael, CA
2017 The Language of the Alchemy of Friendship, Nook Gallery, Oakland, CA
2016 Interdigitation, Satellite of Love, Oakland, CA
2013 “Some Other Needs” Right Window Gallery, curated by Scott Hewicker
Civic Art Exhibit, (for one year) Berkeley, CA
Art Markt, SF, represented by Swarm Gallery
2012 “Sydney Cohen + W. Scott Trimble,” September, Swarm Gallery, Oakland
ArtPadSF, Art Fair, represented by Swarm Gallery
2007-11 Faculty Exhibit, California College of the Arts
2004-11 Visual Aid Benefit Auction, SF
2007-10 Luna Dance Company Benefit Auction, Oakland
“Spring”* Erica Tanov Exhibition Space
2003 “Elevations”* Erica Tanov Exhibition Space
Solid Gold Benefit Auction, Southern Exposure
Co-curator, with James Sterling Pitt: “Dinosaurs, 18 NY, LA and Bay
Area Artists Look Back at the Future” Los Medanos College, CA
2002 “Radio On”* Byron Burford Gallery
“MFA Show” University of Iowa Art Museum
“Iowa 26” 917 Gallery, Chicago, IL
2001 “About Nature” Byron Burford Gallery, Iowa City, IA
1997 “Six” Nexus Gallery
“Short Stories”* Isabel Percy West Gallery, CCAC
Bibliography
2013 “What We do is Secret: Sydney Cohen” by Scott Hewicker on the SFMoMA Open Space Blog
“Further Travels from Farther Away”, Featured in The Daily Palette, curated by Jon Winety University of Iowa Intermedia Magazine, February 4, 2013
2012 Bigman, Alex, “Art Picks” and “Five Things to do in the East Bay this Weekend” East Bay Express, September 29, 2012
“Don’t Miss: Sydney Cohen and W. Scott Trimble at Swarm Gallery”, Art Enthusiast, Oakland Art Beat, September 27, 2013
2011 Solomon, Lisa, “Making it ______ [fill in the blank]”, LisaSolomonMusings.blogspot.com September 18, 2012
2009 Pitts, Carol, “Sydney Cohen”, Face to Face, Interviews with Artists, CCA
2006 Ganem, Alison, "Urban Art Teachers' Work Revealed", The Urban Legend
2003 Modenessi, Jennifer, “Quirky Exhibit Goes Back to the Future”, Contra Costa Times
“Future Abstraction” Los Medanos College Experience
2002 Swanhyser, Hiya, “Candle Light Drawing” SFBay Guardian
Selected Teaching Experience
2017-2018 Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts
2013 Senior Adjunct Professor, California College of the Arts
2002-2013 Adjunct Professor, California College of the Arts
2003-present Founder and Instructor, Weekly Figure Drawing Workshop, Urban School of SF
2009-13 Designer and Instructor, Figure Drawing Workshop Intensive, One Week, The Menlo School
2013 Artist Talk, CSU East Bay, Hayward, for Grace Munakata’s painting class
2003-12 Precollege Professor, Painting and Drawing Workshop, Printmaking, Drawing, CCA
2012 Designer and Instructor, Figure Drawing Workshop Intensive, Piedmont High School
2002-07 Painting and Drawing Professor, CCA Extension
2003-09 Young Artist Professor, Painting and Drawing, CCA
2006 Adjunct Professor, Painting and Watercolor, Ohlone Junior College 2006 Figure Drawing Professor, CSSA California Summer School of the Arts @ Cal Arts
2000-01 Traveling Artist in the Classroom, Public Schools in Iowa, funded by Iowa Arts
Commission
Awards, Honors & Appointments
2005-present Faculty Representative to Enrollment Services, traveling position in recruitment, CCA
2009-present First Year Advisor, CCA
2009 Outstanding Teacher Commendation, First Year program, CCA
2000-02 Iowa Arts Fellow, Full tuition and stipend, University of Iowa
1997 Louise M. Ralls Scholarship Award for Excellence in Painting, CCAC
Selected Works in Public & Private Collections
City of Berkeley
Brockton Public Schools Study Collection, Brockton, MA
University of Iowa Museum of Art
Art + Design San Francisco, Art Consultants
Numerous Private Collections