Adam Cooley

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.

Early life

Adam Cooley was born in Rochester, New York. His family moved over 11 times to various parts of New York State. He grew up in a small rural community in Western New York State. The direction of his work was decided early in life and at the age of twenty-two he suffered the first of several heart attacks due to a medical condition which influenced the themes of his artwork and was a major catalyst for the direction of his future works, abundant output and deliberate, focused work-ethic. 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.

Artwork

Cooley began exhibiting works – mostly paintings – along with performance art pieces while living in New York. He regularly exhibited works after settling in Asia during the early 1990s.

Cooley has created in multiple art forms including performance art, interior design, fashion design, painting, sculpture, lithography, printmaking and film. In 2001, selected works – including the painting "Cooking Dinner for the Little Lady" – were exhibited in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. The museum has also procured two of his works: "Cockadoodle Surprise" and "The Black Beauty" for their permanent collection. He was the first living foreign artist to have a solo exhibition in the Daimaru and Hankyu Department stores.

Appearances in other media Cooley's paintings are featured in the Japanese film , by film maker Kenji Maki.

Selected exhibitions

ECD Christ (1994), The Blue Nile Gallery, Osaka, Japan. OIAF Oxford International Art Fair (2018), Oxford City Council, Town Hall, UK. Flower of Love (2018), Hankyu Umeda Gallery, Osaka, Japan Flower of Passion (2019), Gallery NAO (Nakamura Art Office) Roppongi Adam Cooley・我妻 瑩眞 二人展「LOVE × 愛」 (2022), Daimaru Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan