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Q1 Could you tell us about when your career as an artist started?Where did you study? What was your major or specialization?
I studied at The Cooper Union for the Advancement for Science and Art in New York City as well as at The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. I majored in painting.
Q2 How did you get involved in stitching art?
My mother collected vintage embroideries, quilts and folk art which initially was a great influence visually. Also my father has always been drawn to figurative painting and drawing. In a way the art I am now creating encompass both. I am basically drawing with thread. I enjoy using" traditional crafty" materials to create a new way of seeing contemporary art. I work with vintage and printed fabrics embroideries made by women of previous eras. I act as a collaborator, modernizing their traditional work and altering its original purpose. The fabric becomes the foundation for a fantastical, exotic dialog between the old and the new. |
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Q3 How do you represent yourself through the artwork?
My figures, often female heroines allude to their anxieties, insecurities, vanities & desires through visual narratives. These narratives have both a tactile and symbolic presence, transforming "women's work" into something beautiful, evocative and unexpected. Most of the figures are people from my life or are people I know that are playing a character within the world of my work. My Love, my parents and friends mingle with storybook characters creating a kind of public intimacy. Using people that I know is interesting, intimate, challenging & fun for me. It's unabashed yet very vulnerable, in either case , it's a way I can stay close to them all day with out actually spending physical time together. I create a dialog using the vintage fabrics as two-way mirrors into the like-minded fantasies of competing generations. I cheerfully mix things up, collapsing time & history as I combine the past with the present. |
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Q7 Where do you turn for inspiration for your designing?
My art deals with history, tradition, mythology, fairy tale, nature, relationships and intimacy. The entrainment of contemporary motifs onto vintage fabrics inspires contrasts and dialogs between the time and consciousness of todays pop culture with yesteryear Victorian Romanticism. I am drawn to dichotomies such as soft and tough, dirty and clean, fantasy and reality, especially as they relate to gender. My work explores common feminine archetypes and stereotypes such as the Madonna/Whore, and the Femme Fatale. Searching for that odd thing, the Feminist Beauty Queen, I mix subversion with flirtation, humor with power, intimacy with frivolity and fairytale with the banal.
Q8 What is your future vision?
I would like to connect with the right gallery for me in New York City and have a solo show. I would also like to work with some European galleries. To see more images, press and resume ,please check out my site at www.orlycogan.com. |
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Orly Cogan lives and works in Manhattan,NY. She attended The Cooper Union For the Advancement of Science and Art and The Maryland Institute College of Art. Her solo exhibitions include: "Bachelor Girl" at Julia Friedman Gallery, "Tangled Up In You" at Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, "The Wonder of You" Steven Wolf Fine Arts in San Fransisco , "...and Dont forget to Rescue the Princess" Projects Gallery in Philadelphia and "Sew Good" at Byron Cohen Gallery in Kansas City.
Cogan has participated in various Museum exhibitions with site specific installations, such as: "I Want Candy" Hudson River Museum in NY," Material Girl" The Riverside Museum in California,"Pricked:Extreme Embroidery" The Museum of Arts and Design in NYC and "One by One" The Jersey City Museum of Art. Cogan is included in the digital archive project at the Elisabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art at The Brooklyn Museum in NY and has been part of many group exhibitions in various Manhattan galleries, such as, Caren Golden Fine Arts, Dorsky Space, Feigan Contemporary, 31 Grand, LFL/Zach Feuer Gallery, and DFN Gallery to name a few. Cogan has also been invited to have her work shown at several educational institutions, including: Peppers Gallery, University of Redlands, California, Anne Kittrel Gallery,University of Arkansas, Fayettville, Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Kansas City and The A/D Gallery, Columbia College,Chicago. Recent publications/reviews include: Artnews, Art In America, Chicago Sun Times, Catalog for "Pricked"Museum of Arts and Design, Journal News, Fiber Arts Magazine, W Magazine, Surface Design, The New York Times and the New York Sun Times. To see Cogan's complete resume , press and visuals please go to: www.orlycogan.com |
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Q4 What projects are you currently working on?
I am currently working on doing more site specific instillation that incorporate mixed media. Such as drawings, collage and fabric sculpture.
Q5 What does your average day entail? Could you explain?
Every day is different. It depends if I am creating work for a specific exhibition or working out ideas, concepts and methods in the studio for future projects. Usually I try to take care of what I call business stuff, such as emails and so on in the morning at home. Then take the subway to the studio for the rest of the day. Some times there are days where I just take care of errands related to my work, like looking for new materials, supplies to work with, looking through books (researching topics I'm interested in) to translate visually. I deal with frames, mounting issues and so on. I try to be home around the same time as my husband so we can have dinner together! I some times bring work home so I can continue to work on it at night. |
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Q6 Could you tell us how do you like your work space? How does it look?
I have had a studio space separate from where I live for many years. Soon I will have to move my art studio, as the building will be turned residential and become out of my price range. I hope next to look for a new place where I can live and work in the same space. Ideally it will have plenty of natural light! |
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