Alison Cooley
Alison Cooley
About Alison Cooley
Alison Cooley was born in Washington, DC and studied painting at Sarah Lawrence College. Cooley’s atmospheric abstraction draws on material juxtapositions and a language of repetitive markings, ink blooms, etchings, and organic elements to explore the beautiful, continuous cycles of the natural world. Symbols in the paintings replicate, change, fade, and return through the work creating a subtle tension that examines themes of compliance and resistance, harmony and dissonance, certainty and illusion. Cooley’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Washington, Richmond, and Toronto.
STATEMENT
“Growing up in Washington, with its specifically humid climate, I was always attuned to atmospheres and changing weather patterns. It’s basically what I paint. Most recently I’ve taken this ambient abstraction into a much more intimate zone - an exploration of daily, mostly anonymous, interactions. So often we are thrown into surprising intimacy with strangers and the encounter is visceral. The scent of a wet coat, the recognition of a song leaking from ear buds, the unexpected look at a shaving cut can momentarily engage us in a stranger’s world. A passerby may stun us with an unexpected phrase, captivate us with whimsical makeup, or bury us deep in shadow like a thunderhead. The throwaway exchanges between people navigating a city - invasive and vulnerable, connected yet disconnected - build intricate, fleeting microclimates. My work acts as a collective portraiture, capturing the shifting fronts and clouds of humans moving through and around each other, leaving elements in their wake.” - Alison Cooley
EDUCATION
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville NY
Corcoran School of Art + Design, Washington DC
EXHIBITION
2019, Solo Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery
2019, Solo Exhibition, Adkins Arboretum
2018, “CrossCurrents” Group Exhibition, Salisbury University
2017, “Future Lovers,” Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery
2015, “Paper Prodigies,” Sozo Gallery, Charlotte NC
2015, “Human Botanica,” Two Person Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery
2013, Exhibition, SaoHouse, Montreal Canada
2013, Solo Exhibition, Graficas Gallery, Nantucket MA
2013, Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery
2012, Solo Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2012, “Sweet Tides,” Solo Exhibition, Thos. Moser Showroom, Washington DC
2011, Solo Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2010, Solo Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2009, Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2009, Solo Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2008, Solo Exhibition, Hoadley Gallery, Lenox MA
2007, Two Person Exhibition, Susan Calloway Fine Arts, Washington DC
2007, Solo Exhibition, Hoadley Gallery, Lenox MA
2007, Solo Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2006, Solo Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2006, Solo Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2006, Solo Exhibition, Page Waterman Gallery, Wellesley MA
2006, “All Paintings Great & Small,” Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme CT
2005, Solo Exhibition, Susan Calloway Fine Arts, Washington DC
2005, Two Person Exhibition, Page Waterman Gallery, Wellesley MA
2005, Two Person Exhibition, Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
2005, “The Art Colony on Nantucket: 60 Years of Contemporary Art,” Egan Institute of Maritime Studies, Nantucket MA
2004, Solo Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2004, Solo Exhibition, Susan Calloway Fine Arts, Washington DC
2004, Two Person Exhibition, Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
2004, “Nantucket in SOHO,” Studio Di Modica, New York City
2004, “Artweek 2004” Group Exhibition, Baltimore Choral Arts Society
2003, Two Person Exhibition, Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
2003, Group Exhibition, Page Waterman Gallery, Wellesley MA
2002, Two Person Exhibition, Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
2002, Solo Exhibition, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Arts + Power,” DC Modern Luxury
“Eye Candy,” Domino Magazine
“Remembering Space,” Richmond Arts Review
“Alison Hall Cooley at Old Spouter Gallery,” Inquirer & Mirror
“In Touch with Island Rhythms,” Art of the Cape & Islands
“In the Studio with Alison Hall Cooley,” Nantucket Independent
“Featured Artist: Alison Hall Cooley,” Nantucket Island Living
“Eye of the Beholder,” N Magazine
“400 Notable People on the Cape & Islands,” Cape Cod Life
“Beauty of Cooley’s Work in Eye of the Beholder,” Inquirer & Mirror
“Arts Record: Cooley’s Azorean Influence,” Nantucket Independent
“Forty Under 40,” Nantucket Independent
“Alison Hall Cooley at Calloway Fine Art,” The Georgetowner
“Landscape & Atmosphere: Alison Hall Cooley’s Intuitive Interest,” Nantucket Independent
“Navigations Through Open Space,” Cape Cod Life
