| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
September Issue 2003
Center of the Earth Gallery in Charlotte, NC's, NODA District Features Works by Jacob Cooley
Center of the Earth Gallery in Charlotte, NC,
is pleased to present a long awaited exhibition of new paintings
by North Carolina artist Jacob Cooley. The exhibit, Ocean,
opens Sept. 5 and continues through Oct. 31, 2003.
Cooley is an impressive young landscape painter who closely
follows the legacy of some formidable painters in the history
of western landscape painting. Like his predecessors, he uses
this academic subject matter to reflect the philosophy and psychology
of the time in a strikingly new way. There are several points
of intersection between the history of landscape painting and
the work of Cooley. In the 19th century, European artists of Romantic
landscape painting, such as Casper David Friedrich, J.M.W. Turner,
and John Constable were known for their dynamic depictions of
awe inspiring nature as a living presence. At the turn of the
century, the Impressionists experimented with new perceptions
of the quality of light and how non-naturalistic color affected
the mood of a scene.
In the US, landscape painting has been most closely connected with the Hudson River School, active from 1825-1870. The Hudson River artists, initially led by Thomas Cole, were known for creating panoramic compositions that promoted the message of the virtue of nature. In Cooley's work, visual connections can be made with these important landscape pioneers. Cooley reinterprets familiar settings by capturing a strong mood through the play of atmospheric light. The density of lush vegetative forms take on an almost sculptural quality that is seductive in its physicality. Ironically, in some paintings the only hint of mans presence comes through the coloration of an intensely colored sky that we generally attribute to our attack on the ozone. This is the contemporary framework that contributes to the reinvention of this genre.
Cooley has a truly signature style that is unmistakable. He presents us with a sublime vision of the coast through the use of an almost revelatory light. Hazy and diffuse atmosphere mysteriously suggests both dusk and dawn alike. He says of the work, "These new paintings are an attempt to capture the wind, salt air, harsh light and bleached colors of the North Carolina coast. With these paintings I want to balance formal strength with the immediacy of the medium; to make images that convey all the clean, austere beauty of the coastal environment while still being about paint and minimalism and surface."
Cooley has taken these memories of places
to create spellbinding paintings that are as relaxing as they
are contemplative.
Cooley received his MFA in painting from University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993 and his BFA from University of
Georgia, Athens. Selected collections include Duke University
Museum of Art, Ford Motor Co, SAS Institute, John Deere and Burroughs
Welcome Foundation.
For further information check our NC
Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/375-5756
or on the web at (www.centeroftheearth.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.