page_title: Adam Cooley
section_title: Dominant themes
hierarchical_section_title: Adam Cooley / Dominant themes
caption_attribution_description: English: title: Cooking Dinner for the Little Lady medium: acrylic on wood dimensions: 51 cm x 73 cm
context_page_description: Adam Cooley is an American artist whose works include painting, sculpture, performance art, fashion design, lithography, interior design and film. He currently lives between Osaka, Japan and New York.
context_section_description: Cooley's imagery is often overly fantastic and suggest a strong surrealist influence. It is not only the subject of the paintings that reflect this idea but the techniques and processes used in their development. This can extend to how he exhibits his art. At an exhibition in Kyoto, at the Gallery Maronie, the works themselves were manipulated, touched, and handled by spectators. The resulting change, wear and tear that emerged was intended by the artist as part of the artwork itself. One such work – a painted ball contained in a sandbox that spectators were encouraged to roll, touch, and move – helped in the transformation of the ball by tearing and scratching its painted surface. Other works are laden with metals and gold-leaf, which he transforms using processes such as oxidization and aging to finish his pieces. Often it can take months or even years of aging before the artist considers the works done. It is this transformation of the work itself, a physical object, which mirrors the more fundamental concept, namely transformation of the spirit that is often the subject of his paintings, sculptures and performances.
caption: Cooking Dinner for the Little Lady by artist Adam Cooley, Medium: acrylic on wood, Dimensions: 51 cm x 73 cm
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