Charles Cooper is a visual artist and art educator who lives in central New Jersey with his family. After serving six years in the Marine Corps, he attended the University of the Arts (formally the Philadelphia College of Art) in Philadelphia receiving his BFA in Illustration in 1988. Later he attended the Yale University Graduate School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut receiving his MFA in Painting and Printmaking. He has exhibited his work nationally in various galleries and museums. His work is in various private and public collections to include the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey.
Artist Statement
My work is about interiority, intimacy, and vulnerability. I weave together observations, memories, and dreams into open-ended, multilayered narratives that are often semi-autobiographical and metaphorical. My drawings and paintings often deal with confronting trauma, loss, alienation and through poetry, personal rituals and myth- making. My work involves a kind of expressive, and abstracted figurative language. My spaces are often ambiguous and flattened and drawn from my familiar surroundings. My art historical references range from early Modernism, Expressionism, Color Field painting, Folk art, and Indian miniature paintings.
Art at Kings Oaks 