Pam Cooper
Statement
I create art of handmade abaca paper including: sculpture, prints, installations and book arts. Social comment is the overall theme addressed in my work.
The work references childhood by using Xerox transfer prints of my drawings based on old family photos, old sewing pattern images, and domestic details. The images seem to be of a bygone era but the issues addressed are extremely relevant today. My current body of work comprises of installations within small rooms, closet spaces and small boxes, three dimensional paper houses and most recently paper shoes.
My first constructions of small closets were kinetic. A small girl rotating in front of a mirror. Only her back view was ever visible. Young girls are coming of age in an American culture that celebrates dress, beauty and popularity at the expense of nearly everything else.
Following these are three dimensional paper sculptures of houses; floor standing, suspended from the ceiling or nailed to the wall; with images of children trapped inside. To see them you have to peep through the windows. These houses confine the children in a claustrophobic interior and were created in response to the meteoric rise in social networking where children became vulnerable to predators and bullying in their own homes.
I make all my own paper to the size I require for each project. The house constructions were fairly simple as they needed only flat pieces of paper. The construction of the shoes was much more involved. A number of plaster shoe lasts had to be cast from a mold and the paper formed around them.
Website: www.pamcooper.com
Resume
EDUCATION:
1994 BFA. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.
1987-1989 Certificate in Art and Design, Eastleigh College, Hampshire, England.
1970 BSc. Hons. Pharmacy, Aston University, Birmingham, England.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2016 Through the Window, Windows on Columbus, ProArts Project, Jersey City, NJ
2013 Emerging Artists, Monmouth Museum NJ
2006 Images of Childhood, Creative Center, NYC
2003 Project Room, Phoenix Gallery, NYC
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2020 MIXMASTER @ The MATT, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT.
2019 Focus:Fiber 2019 Kent State University Museum, Kent, Ohio
Art of the Fold, Travelling Library Exhibition, Denver, CO
2018 Finding Home: The Global Refugee Crisis, University of Central Florida Art Gallery
2017 Living in the Shadows:Underground Immigrant Communities, Rutgers Center forWomen in the Arts
2016 SMI Viewpoints 2016, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ.
Artists Emerged, NJ Emerging Artists Series, New Works, Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ.
2015 Connections II, George Segal Gallery, Montclair, NJ.
2014 Pulp Culture, Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
Home, Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery, College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristow, n, NJ
2013 The Curators Choice Exhibit, Victory Hall Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ.
Art on Paper, Maryland Federation of Art, Annapolis, M
Wax, Paper, Scissors, The Gallery at Hillside Square, Montclair, NJ.
2012 Legacy, Printmaking Center of Northern NJ, Branchburg NJ.
Home, Front Street Gallery, Patterson, NY
State of Art 2012, SMI Galleries @ Academy Square, Montclair, NJ.
2011 Information Revisited, Mahoney Library, College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ.
Sculpture, National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, New York, NY..
Nexus NJ Arts Guild NJ, Rahway, NJ.
2010 In-Between, The Gallery at Worcester State College, Worcester, MA.
Information Revisited, Belskie Museum, Closter, NJ. Connections 6, George Segal Gallery, Montclair State University, NJ. 2009 Home, Mikhail Zakin Gallery, Art School at Old Church, Demarest, NJ. A Parallel Presence, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ
NAWA: 120, HUB-Robeson Gallery, Penn State University, PA
NAWA: Celebration of 120 Years, Delaware Community College, Media, PA
2008 New Jersey Fine Art-Craft, NJ State Museum, Trenton NJ.
Currents, Studio Montclair, Ben Shahn Gallery, Wayne NJ