'Reveries' by Alan Cohen

The Cornel/Henry Art continues to support local San Diego artists by extending their platform to the most brilliant Local Talent. As such the Cornel/Henry Art is thrilled to introduce Alan Cohen, a photographer, painter, and mixed media artist who lives and works in San Diego, California. Deriving inspiration from abstract art, contemporary craft, and the gritty urban landscape of his hometown New York City, Cohen creates photographic images that distill the extraordinary from the mundane. In his collages and 3-d projects,  Cohen deconstructs, superimposes, reassembles, and juxtaposes both familiar and unexpected elements in search of a unique viewpoint. His grid-like paintings and hand-pieced photo weavings are exercises in pursuing equanimity,  organizing chaos, and capturing the moment when structure begins to disassemble into disarray. Cohen received his B.S. from Yale College and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He has studied with photographer Suda House, collage artist Kirsten Francis, painter Bailey Davenport, multidisciplinary artist Renee Weissenberger, and ceramic artist Yoonchung Kim. His photographs and acrylic paintings have been shown in both solo and juried group exhibitions including “Eye Connect” and “The Art of Healing” (Gotthelf Gallery), “Both Sides Now” (Sophie’s Gallery), Athenaeum’s Annual Juried Exhibition, and the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild Annual Member and Winter Exhibitions. Cohen’s work can be found in private collections on both coasts in the U.S.

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"Reveries was conceived in 2020 during the Coronavirus outbreak, inspired by a triweekly online guided group meditation, a biweekly photography group critique via zoom, and a daily soul-searching walk to a local pond. The project addresses introspection, contemplation, spirituality and identity.  Do we dare to daydream during a perilous and enigmatic pandemic?  Reveries explores transitional states, possibilities, and an essential human character strength: resilience. There is a subtext of duality throughout: telescopic vs microscopic, human vs nonhuman, reality vs fantasy, and color vs black and white. Each work in this exhibition is a transitional or hybrid construction of 2 distinct images that was captured during the playback of an animated slide presentation of a multitude of images." - Alan Cohen

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