News and upcoming exhibitions
Exhibition
RA Summer Exhibition
Royal Academy of Arts, London
18 June – 18 August 2024
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Cooper is exhibiting two new oil paintings and four new prints as part of the annual Summer Exhibition.
Imagine
2024
New representation and upcoming exhibition
Eyes Wide Open
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery Wandsworth
23 October – 23 November 2024
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Cooper is now represented by Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery and has an upcoming solo show Eyes Wide Open at the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Wandsworth, London, this autumn.
Water Tiger
2024
Recent exhibition
Mirror, Mirror
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery Tower Bridge
26 April – 25 May 2024
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A group show curated by Soheila Sokhanvari and Kristin Hjellegjerde brings together fifteen artists whose work explores the symbolism of mirrors. Featuring painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media and conceptual work, the exhibition examines how reflection can be used to evoke ideas around narcissism, truth, trauma and identity.
Object of Desire
2023
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.
Eileen Cooper and Bobby Baker in Baker’s London studio, 2023
© Suki Dhanda
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.
Figures on Ladder
1979
In 1980 her drawing Figures on Ladder was included in Women’s Images of Men, one of three major exhibitions of women’s art held at the ICA that year. Through metaphorical and allegorical paintings, Cooper’s practice explores ideas around motherhood, sexuality, love and death, often with autobiographical allusions.
New exhibition
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood
Hayward Gallery Touring
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From 9 March 2024, the painting Putting Down Roots will feature in The Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood. Curated by author and art critic Hettie Judah, the show opens at the Arnolfini in Bristol (9 March – 26 May 2024), and will travel to Midland Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham (22 June – 29 September 2024), Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (24 October 2024 – 21 January 2025), and Dundee Contemporary Arts in Spring 2025.
The exhibition plunges into the joys and heartaches, mess, myths and mishaps of motherhood through over 100 artworks, from the feminist avant-garde to the present day.
Putting Down Roots
1985
Arts Council of Great Britain
Accompanying online exhibition
Mum’s The Word
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In response to the exhibition, Kathleen Soriano has curated an online exhibition Mum’s the Word showing Cooper’s consistent interest in this subject with comments from an invited group of women writers, curators and artists.
Tickling Mummy’s Toes
1985
Eileen Cooper Family Collection
New limited edition print
Mother’s Day
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To coincide with her Mum’s The Word exhibition, Cooper has created a limited edition print of Mother’s Day. The first ten prints will be available at a special launch price of £960 (including VAT).
Mother’s Day
2023
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Edition of 40
Woodcut
55.5 x 45cm (block 54.5 x 36)
Hand printed on Awagami Bamboo Japanese paper
Published by the artist
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.
Witness II by Cooper on display alongside Picasso ceramics
‘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.’
Self Portrait with Coloured Pastels
2019
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.
Woman Examining her Shadow
1989-90
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
Family Room, Bethlem MBU (Mother and Baby Unit), for the Hospital Rooms project at South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Bethlem MBU is a specialist perinatal mental health unit.
Photography: Damian Griffiths
Acquisition to The National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery has acquired two of Cooper’s drawings for its permanent collection.
Cathie Pilkington RA
2018
Self portrait in black dress
2019
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© 2024 Eileen Cooper