Jessica Cooper RWA
Jessica Cooper has lived and worked in Cornwall’s West Penwith for most of her life. She studied at Falmouth College of Art and at Goldsmith’s, University of London. She is a member of the NSA and PSA and is an elected RWA.
Cooper exhibits nationally and internationally on a regular basis, including exhibitions at The Exchange and Newlyn Art Gallery, the RWA, Kestle Barton, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Tate St. Ives and New York art fairs. Cooper has worked on specific design projects and collaborations with Nathan Outlaw and St Enodoc Hotel, Arbor Collective, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, King + McGaw for John Lewis, Art Press, Among The Pines, and Tate Enterprises.
like the comic silence that treads a thrilling fine line; the pregnant pause in a bar of music; the short line of poetry that gathers emotion in refrain, jessica cooper’s apparent simplicity on canvas is her most courageous and impactful tool.
the temptation might be to call it minimalism, with its implication of stripping away – or simplicity, with its suggestion of naiveté – but more accurately this is mindfulness of art: a honing of awareness; an attentiveness of mind; and an openness to meaning, wherever it might be found.
to watch cooper at work is to observe a tireless quest for this all-important meaning. as she prepares for a painting in her ever-present sketchbook, she explores and distils the subject until finding what she describes as its ‘core’: the part or parts in which she finds value, essence, emotion, substance or significance, impact or import. once found, all else falls beyond the borders of the canvas, the noise of life is turned to fade, and she focuses with a rare clarity.