Space 776 is pleased to present a solo exhibition by New York City-based mixed-media artist Rachel Gisela Cohen. The exhibition features Cohen’s recent works created from 2019 onwards.
The understory is an in-between rainforest layer with a damp and dark environment that rivals the bright outer canopy and foundational forest floor. In Cohen’s work a variety of materials including flashe paint, sequined fabric, recycled beads, and faux crocodile skin come together to create a theatrical and playful world; one that expresses Cohen’s fascination with beauty as well as her criticism of excess in contemporary culture.
Cohen draws references from aposematic organisms she observed in the Costa Rican rainforest as well as from drag and theater culture. Her collages of bold colors and decorative materials creates a composition made in response to her personal memories and experiences. As a whole, Rachel Gisela Cohen’s sequin-encrusted chromatic abstract paintings become an ecosystem of their own where a metamorphosis of various forms takes place. Relying on the unexpected coupling of paint and fabric, Rachel Gisela Cohen creates a hybrid medium that comments on the coexistence of natural and man-made environments.
Rachel Gisela 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.
