COOP

[The Gorgon]

Hi All,

I can't believe there isn't a COOP thread here. I was introduced to COOP's work in the 90's when I was in college. I was at a used CD store in Glendale --do they still have those today, and stumbled upon The Lords of Acid album "Voodoo U". I listened to the first track and was trapped in COOP's world of she devils.

As time went on and I was liquidating CDs I no longer listen to. I realized that the rest of the CD wasn't really that great except for the first 2 tracks. The rest of the songs kindda give me a headache. However, I could never have the strength to sell my Lords of Acid CD, because I fell deeply in love with the CD cover and I still have it to this day.

Is it wrong that I get turned on by COOP's work?



COOP's new work at CoreyHelford Gallery
"Gun / Club / Punch"
Just as erotic as Lords of Acid

[The Gorgon]

Here's the NYTimes article on his recent show "Idle Hands"

For Artist’s Latest Work, Inspiration Comes in Triplicate

Coop, is featured in a solo show opening in Culver City, Calif., Friday.
When the Los Angeles-based artist Chris Cooper, known as Coop, set out to finish a triptych that depicted a 1972 Dodge Challenger painted a shade of purple called Plum Crazy, he was stumped.

After the initial strokes of paint dried, he put the canvas panels in storage. He returned to the piece months later and leaned the panels against a wall, when he noticed the panels were out of order. He liked what he saw.

“Before it wasn’t working for me,” Coop said in a telephone interview this week. “As soon as the panels were turned upside and backwards, it’s like now the car looks like it’s in motion and it has energy to it.”

“I’m a very meticulous person, and usually I plan things out. That was a happy accident for me,” he said.

Coop will show the piece, “Gun/Club/Punch,” composed of acrylic and spray paint, in “Idle Hands,” a solo exhibition opening Friday at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, Calif. The triptych, measuring 12 feet across, is the artist’s first foray into muscle car imagery.


While other paintings in the show reflect his characteristic subject matter of lascivious women and red devils, cars are an underlying theme. “It’s all part of the stew, even if a painting doesn’t have a car as the subject matter it’s always there lurking underneath the surface, because it’s such a big part of my own life,” he said.

In car culture, Coop has staked out his reputation in the hot rod scene. His pulp imagery of voluptuous she-devils and their cigar-chomping male counterparts is stamped on stickers, air fresheners, license plates, posters, lamps and lighters. “At this point, because of my connection to that world, everything that I do has that touch to it,” he said.

Coop first sketched his trademark cigar-smoking devil for a friend’s merchandise line in the early ’90s. “That image took on a life of its own,” he said. “Every time I go in a car show or every time I’m in a race, I see a sticker with that devil on it. Not to compare myself to Big Daddy Roth, but it’s become my Rat Fink,” he said, referring to the revered car customizer and his gearhead protagonist, a googly eyed rodent.

Coop completed his first large-scale automotive painting in 2004, a 78-foot-long tribute to “F-111” by the pop artist, James Rosenquist.

“It was my statement on the history and technology of drag racing,” Coop said. “It went through an early gasser style ‘55 Chevy dragster, through a hot rod and finally ended with a blown Hemi motor, which is the pinnacle of top fuel drag racing.”

Participating in a reboot of the Carrera Panamericana, based on the grueling race that ran through much of Mexico in the early ’50s, added new dimensions to the artist’s palette. “We’re up in the mountains in very high altitudes, and the light is so different high above sea level,” he said. “It really changed the way I think about color.”

Coop alternates between a 1965 Ford Falcon station wagon and a 1965 Falcon coupe as his daily drivers, but his newest fixation, a 1946 Ford, is likely to sit as his next subject.

“I’m actually trading a painting for this car,” he said of the Ford. “My goal is that anything I don’t do on it myself, I’ll trade artwork for, so I don’t actually spend money on the car. I see it as a conceptual art project.”

“Idle Hands” is on view through Aug. 3.

[sleepboy]

Some pics from the show.

[The Gorgon]

Thanks sleepy. We have a baby so it's difficult for us to get out now a days.

I love how Robert Williams was in attendance. Coop said that Wonder Woman was a portrait of his GF. I'm assuming the tall redhead is the GF?

[sketchv]

Williams, sporting 70's gold medallion, rocks.

[rhinomilk]

Show was great! Really nice seeing the paintings in the flesh & hanging out at the opening

Jul 18, 2011 11:21:44 GMT -8 The Gorgon said:

Coop said that Wonder Woman was a portrait of his GF. I'm assuming the tall redhead is the GF?

yep. it is her

Jul 18, 2011 13:55:00 GMT -8 sketchv said:

Williams, sporting 70's gold medallion, rocks.

looked like it was of Coochie Cootie

[The Gorgon]

Rhino,

COOP's green necklace looks pretty sweet. Any insider insight on what it was?

[rhinomilk]

Jul 18, 2011 16:34:57 GMT -8 The Gorgon said:

Rhino,

COOP's green necklace looks pretty sweet. Any insider insight on what it was?

Frankenstein.

I forgot what brand shoes he wore, but the suit was Hugo Boss and his beard was trimmed by a barber named Nick on La Brea

[sketchv]

Jul 18, 2011 13:55:00 GMT -8 sketchv said:

Williams, sporting 70's gold medallion, rocks.

looked like it was of Coochie Cootie[/quote]


Sweet! Thanks, I was curious. Saw an image of it somewhere on the web as a part of a Vans catalog. Haven't seen one on e-Bay yet....
Thanks for the info.