New group exhibition
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists

Pallant House Gallery
17 May – 2 November 2025

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A major survey exhibition of portraits. It explores how artists in Britain during the 20th and 21st centuries have portrayed each other to reflect on identity, their place within artistic circles, and the history of art. The exhibition includes Cooper’s portrait of Uduehi Imienwanrin, and his of her. Excerpts from their conversation on friendship is featured in the exhibition catalogue.

New exhibition
Evergreen
Royal Academy of Arts
April 2025 – February 2026

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A personal selection from Cooper are on display in the Academicians’ Room in Keepers’ House.

New exhibition
Light is Therefore Colour
4 June – 26 October 2025
Turner’s House, Twickenham

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A joint exhibition with Sinta Tantra, where both artists have created works in response to Turner’s former home.

Current group exhibition
‘A Living Collection’

Hepworth Wakefield
February 2025 – Spring 2026

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Cooper’s painting ‘An Arabian Night’ is part of Hepworth Wakefield's exhibition, ‘A Living Collection’.

Artists on display alongside Cooper are Val Barry, Phyllida Barlow, Alvaro Barrington, Betty Blandino, Lisa Brice, Adam Buick, Halima Cassell, Andrew Cranston, Jill Crowley, Ashraf Hanna, Li Hei Di, Barbara Hepworth, Nour Jaouda, Bernard Leach, Liliane Lijn, Henry Moore, Ursula Morley-Price, Sara Radstone, Carol Rhodes and Bridget Riley.

Current group exhibition
‘Lines of Feeling: Portrait Drawing Now’

National Portrait Gallery
January 2025 – 2026

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Coopers’ portraits, which are now part of the gallery’s permanent collection, are on display for one year in The Mary Weston Wing, Room 31: Contemporary Drawing Acquisitions.

New book
A World of Our Own: Women Artists Against the Odds
Frances Borzello

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A new edition of one of the first books to focus on the world of women artists and their practice, which features Coopers’ work.

Women have always practised as artists, but for centuries the art world considered them mere dilettantes. Their work was derided as second-rate and they were considered intruders in a male profession. This study examines how, against the odds, they overcame these difficulties and shifts the focus away from women artists as ‘victims’ to give an account of how they actually practised their art. This stirring account documents the centuries-long struggle of gifted women who confronted the exclusionary tactics of a male-dominated art establishment but pressed ahead undaunted to gain acceptance as sought-after professionals.

Touring exhibition
Acts of Creation:
On Art and Motherhood
Spring 2024 – Summer 2025

Dundee Contemporary Arts
19 April – 30 July 2025

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From March 2024, Coopers work has been featured in this Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition. It explores the joys and heartaches, mess, myths and mishaps of motherhood through over 100 artworks, from the feminist avant-garde to the present day.

New feature
Art Quarterly Magazine
Bobby Baker and Eileen Cooper on art and motherhood

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In an exclusive interview with Hettie Judah for Art Quarterly, the membership magazine of Art Fund, Cooper and Bobby Baker discuss feminism, art school and the influence of parenthood on their work.

Touring exhibition:
Women in Revolt! Art & Activism in the UK
Tate Britain (until 7 April 2024)
National Galleries of Scotland: Modern, Edinburgh (25 May 2024 - 26 Jan 2025)
The Whitworth, The University of Manchester (7 March 2025 - 24 August 2025)

A major survey of feminist art over 100 women artists working in the UK – the first of its kind. It explores how networks of women used radical ideas and rebellious methods to make an invaluable contribution to British culture. Through their creative practices, women’s liberation was forged against the backdrop of extreme social, economic and political change.

Cooper says how thrilled she is to be represented in this ground breaking exhibition by this early work which is part of a series of large drawings made in 1979-80.

New sculpture on display
Picasso Ceramics Gallery
Leicester Museums & Galleries

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‘Witness II’ can now be seen on display in the Picasso Ceramics Gallery at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery. This ceramic was recently purchased for the museum’s permanent collection with grant funding. It follows on from the hugely successful exhibition ‘Parallel Lines: Eileen Cooper and Leicester’s Art Collection’ held at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in 2022.

Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund, the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the City of Leicester Museums Trust, 2023.

‘Picasso has been a major influence on me all my creative life. Firstly, at the age of 20, I discovered his painting, then his incredible output in both printmaking and ceramics. The use of the figure, sexuality, the autobiographical and mythological imagery, all have had a profound influence on my work. Clay and paint are closely connected and the primal qualities of both are hugely significant for me. I received an AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board) grant to work on the project 'Ceramics from a Fine Artist around 1999-2000 and the Witness series was part of that work. I was assisted by ceramicist Annie Turner to whom I am incredibly grateful.’

— Cooper writing in February 2023 about Picasso's influence and her work with ceramics

New publication
Eileen Cooper: Body & Soul Sketchbook
Published by The Royal Academy of Arts

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This new hardback sketchbook reveals Cooper’s fascination with the female body in various media, from pencil and crayon to charcoal and gouache.

New acquisition to the Katrin Bellinger Collection
Self Portrait with Coloured Pastels

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This piece has been acquired by Katrin Bellinger Collection as part of ‘a conscious decision to buy more contemporary art with a focus on female artists’.

‘I fell for this pastel drawing by Eileen as she consciously depicts herself in the mirror, a tool often disguised in self portraits. I love the pastels scattered on the table around the mirror’s foot which could also be read as lipsticks adding a feminine touch.’

Acquisition to the Tate Gallery
Woman Examining her Shadow, 1989-90

This major painting of Cooper’s has been acquired by Tate as part of their permanent collection. First exhibited in 1990, the painting was in a private collection for over a decade before eventually returning to her. Personally, it is a hugely significant work and she is delighted it is now with Tate.

New book
Parallel Lines: Eileen Cooper
Texts by Kathleen Soriano, Linsey Young
Available to buy now

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Reflecting on Cooper’s artistic experiences – which, in the words of Linsey Young ‘disrupt the neat patriarchal understandings of women’ – this thoughtfully designed and elegant hard back book brings together for the first time early works illustrated alongside previously unseen works including drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics and portraits, many of which will be a surprise to readers. 

Hospital Rooms
Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Bethlem Mother & Baby Unit