COOPER

Cooper is an American contemporary artist from Evansville, Indiana. He studied graphic design at art school, cultivating his aesthetic sensibility, and after an early career in the music industry, he transitioned to fine art. Since establishing his studio in his hometown of Indiana in 2019, he has developed a distinctive pictorial world that combines the vivid colors of 1990s Post-modern Pop with the sensibilities of Mid-Century Modern design. He was discovered by Jay Rutland, Creative Director of Maddox Gallery, and has since established himself as a new-generation painter through a series of solo exhibitions in London.

His work reconfigures everyday scenes and personal memories into vibrant paintings, blending nostalgia with a contemporary sensibility. Vintage audio equipment, speakers, plants, and other objects found in his studio feature as recurring motifs, rooted in his childhood memories of his grandparents’ record player and early musical experiences. Cooper describes himself as an anxious person, yet explains that the process of repeatedly painting speaker motifs has become a meditative practice. In front of the work, he finds himself absorbed in their forms, experiencing a sense of calm and stability.

In Los Angeles, his large-scale wildflower murals on building façades led to collaborations with global brands including Coach NY, Adidas, Vans, and Puma. He has also contributed to public projects, notably the mural at the basketball court where hip-hop artist Nipsey Hussle spent his childhood. Today, his works are widely collected by collectors across generations in Taiwan, China, Korea, and beyond. Under the motto “I Am Cooper,” he transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, offering viewers both an encounter with his vision and a reflective mirror of themselves.

Text courtesy Tang Contemporary Art.