Rachel Gisela Cohen
Using the decorative as a defense mechanism, Rachel Gisela Cohen's work reflects on beauty, surface, and the excess of contemporary culture, dancing between the natural and material world. She
establishes a dressing room for each piece, attempting to discover what dialogue her work is innately speaking into.
Cohen stretches fabric and textiles over canvas, cutting and tearing holes to expose the painting’s multiple layers and interior. The holes or chasms may allude to a rift in the earth, a garment struggling to cover the body, or a web of growing bacteria.
Cohen is an artist, educator, and independent curator based in NYC. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, exhibiting at The Spring Break Art Show 2020, Armenia Art Fair, Pierogi Gallery’s The Boiler, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and Hunter College Art Galleries. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, COPE NYC, and the Montclair Art Museum. She received her M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute and a B.A. in Art History and Visual Arts from Drew University. Currently, she teaches as an Artist Educator at the Museum of Arts and …
Using the decorative as a defense mechanism, Rachel Gisela Cohen's work reflects on beauty, surface, and the excess of contemporary culture, dancing between the natural and material world. She
establishes a dressing room for each piece, attempting to discover what dialogue her work is innately speaking into.
Cohen stretches fabric and textiles over canvas, cutting and tearing holes to expose the painting’s multiple layers and interior. The holes or chasms may allude to a rift in the earth, a garment struggling to cover the body, or a web of growing bacteria.
Cohen is an artist, educator, and independent curator based in NYC. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, exhibiting at The Spring Break Art Show 2020, Armenia Art Fair, Pierogi Gallery’s The Boiler, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and Hunter College Art Galleries. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, COPE NYC, and the Montclair Art Museum. She received her M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute and a B.A. in Art History and Visual Arts from Drew University. Currently, she teaches as an Artist Educator at the Museum of Arts and Design and manages the School of Visual Arts Artist Residency Programs in New York City.
