Alison Cooley was born in Washington, DC and studied 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 and represented by galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Charlotte, and Richmond.
Born 1973 Washington, DC
Education
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville NY
Corcoran School of Art, Washington DC
Select Solo Exhibitions
2022
“Elysium,” Tappan, Los Angeles
2021
“Aether,” Tappan, Los Angeles
2021
Anniversary Exhibition, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte NC
2020
“Perenne,” Tappan Collective, Los Angeles
2019
Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2019
Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely MD
2013
Graficas Gallery, Nantucket MA
2011
Sweet Tides, Thos. Moser Showroom, Washington DC
Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2009
Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2008
Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
Hoadley Gallery, Lenox MA
2007
Hoadley Gallery, Lenox MA
Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket, MA
2006
Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
Page Waterman Gallery, Wellesley MA
2005
Susan Calloway Fine Arts, Washington DC
2004
Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
Susan Calloway Fine Arts, Washington DC
2001
Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
Select Group Exhibitions
2018
CrossCurrents, Salisbury University, Salisbury MD
2017
Future Lovers, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2015
Paper Prodigies, Sozo Gallery, Charlotte NC
2015
Human Botanica, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond VA
2013
SaoHouse, Montreal Canada
2010
Two Person Exhibition, Old Spouter Gallery, Nantucket MA
2009
Sanctuary, Egan Institutes of Maritime Studies, Nantucket MA
2007
Two Person Exhibition, Susan Calloway Fine Arts, Washington DC
2006
All Paintings Great & Small, Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme CT
2005
Page Waterman Gallery, Wellesley MA
Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
The Art Colony on Nantucket: 60 Years of Contemporary Art, Egan Institute of Maritime Studies, Nantucket MA
2004
Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
Nantucket in SOHO, Studio di Modica, New York NY
Artweek 2004, Choral Arts Society, Baltimore MD
2003
Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
Page Waterman Gallery, Wellesley MA
2002
Whitlock Gallery, Nantucket MA
2001
Featured Artist Exhibition, AAN Gallery, Nantucket MA
South Wharf Gallery, Nantucket MA
2000
South Wharf Gallery, Nantucket MA
Art in the Parlor, Nantucket MA
1999
Work, Work, Work, New Gallery, Nantucket MA
Art in the Park, Nantucket MA
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
Awards and Honors
2006
George Smith Award, Artists Association of Nantucket
2002
People’s Choice Award, Artists Association of Nantucket
2000
Charles C. McDougall Award for Promising New Artist, AAN
Juror’s Award, Artists Association of Nantucket Gallery
1999
Juror’s Award Artists Association of Nantucket Gallery
My work focuses on memory of spaces. Expansive color planes, shooting and falling lines, and etchings overlap and move within an underlying composition suggestive of landscape. Textures and values interweave to create a suspension of visual spaces reflective of memory construction. As color fields stack and unfurl delicate markings orient the viewer and provide a handle for the eye. This dislocation produced by plane and color is steadied by navigation of line.
-
Alison Cooley & Stephanie Weber
March 03, 2017 — April 01, 2017
-
Alison Cooley & Kathleen Markowitz
April 10, 2015 — May 09, 2015
-
Alison Hall Cooley
November 08, 2001 — December 06, 2001