459 West 19th Street,
Chelsea

Diana Cooper

Defying easy categorization Diana Cooper is best known for expanding the idea of drawing into the third dimension to create dense, line-driven sculptural hybrids. Essentially abstract, yet projecting an inherent sense of systems, networks and circuitry, Cooper's works bridge the organic and technological realm. They transcend the childlike doodling of repetition, multiplication and absent-mindedness to create complex spatial units where spontaneity and control, chaos and order, joy and seriousness coexist.

Cooper says:
I am fascinated by maps, subway systems, color-coding, the relationships between macroscopic and microscopic imagery. But I always feel that I operate by osmosis. I really am influenced by the visual world. I want the work to have a sensuality and visual impact. And I think a lot of systems are visual. Systems are a way people try to make sense of things or create order. They also are all around us, in the natural world and in the man-made world, and I am intrigued by how they intersect, echo one another, or come into conflict. But I am less drawn to the specific content or narrative of a given system, which for me is just raw material. In fact, I am interested when something like a diagram or a graph disassociates itself from its origin and becomes something else entirely.

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