Leslie Sacks Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent paintings by Los Angeles based artist, Bruce Cohen. Cohen’s alluring interiors and still lifes captivate in his new body of work. His singular aesthetic is immediately distinguishable in its refined realism and exquisite palette. He has explored these genres for decades, yielding ever more enigmatic and enchanting realms.
Bruce Cohen’s work nods to the old masters and his passion for art history. Stylistically, the work’s central focus of everyday objects from daily life connects to 17th century Dutch masters from whom he draws great influence and inspiration. In practice, Cohen successfully summons a contemporary sensibility with a polished, yet punchy palette and an almost surreal compression of the picture plane. He executes mastery of the subject to his advantage, constantly perfecting his process to stunning effect and culminating in an unhurried and meticulous rendering. Similar to Pop artists like Jasper Johns and Jim Dine who employ a visual vocabulary of repeated imagery, Cohen revisits themes and objects (flowers, vases, books, window sills) finding infinite arrangements.
Though the work is rooted in principles of realism, Bruce Cohen’s paintings are constructed from a combination of memories and real-world observations. He methodically orchestrates his domestic environments combining variations of flowers, fragments of interior spaces, windows and doorways from his home. Although these interiors do not necessarily exist in reality exactly as he paints them, they do exist this way in his mind. In paintings tinged with a hint of surrealism, Cohen rejects the conventional compositional practices of painting still lifes. And while absent of any figures, these settings unquestionably infer a human presence. Geometric networks of windows, doorways and flattened passageways are also mainstays in Cohen’s work. It’s a compositional architecture reminiscent of Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series, again emblematic of Cohen’s keen art historical sensibilities, which consciously and subconsciously inform and enhance his oeuvre.
Bruce Cohen studied at the Universities of California, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Painting for over forty years, his work is held in numerous esteemed public and private collections; Collection of Lynda and Stewart Resnick, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Art, Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Palm Springs Desert Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, among others. Bruce Cohen lives and works in Santa Monica, California.
Leslie Sacks Gallery is located in the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica 2525 Michigan Avenue, B6. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday 9-5, Saturday 11-6. The gallery is online at lesliesacks.com. Email gallery@lesliesacks.com or call 310 264 0640.