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Coop came West (out of Bixby,
Oklahoma) late in the 80's (yes, way
back in the 1900's!) and made a name
for himself as an "underground"
artist, although plenty of other
people have tried to pin lots of other
names onto what he does. Chances are
good you've seen one of his devils,
devil-girls, hotrods, or monsters on
rock posters, fine-art posters,
t-shirts, hats, stickers, stationery
sets, skate boards, toys and model
kits,
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shot glasses, Zippo lighters, a set of
computer fonts (currently in use as
the "I love to see you smile" campaign
used by McDonalds), and about a
million other places.
He's
done nearly 100 posters, including
rock posters for Nirvana, Soundgarden,
The Sex Pistols and many others, and
album cover art for everyone from the
Monomen to the Ramones.
The
first edition of his full-color coffee
table book was released to an
immediate sellout in November 2001,
and went immediately into reprint. A
third printing was ordered less than a
year from the original release and
sales continue to be brisk. Coop's
second book, a 1008-page sketchbook,
was released in October 2002 and it
too is on its way to a record-selling
first printing. According to Juxtapoz
Magazine, Coop's name is "now more
recognizable to modern youth than that
of Rembrandt."
He
cites Robert Williams, R. Crumb and
Eric Stanton as some of his favorites
and great influences, in addition to
Big Daddy Roth, Irving Klaw, Wally
Wood, Gil Elvgren, and a host of other
degenerates.
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Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
houses two of Coop's posters in its
permanent collection He has also been
commissioned to customize an Escalade
and design a run of limited edition
gambling chips for the Hard Rock
Casino in Las Vegas.
Coop's
artwork has been shown throughout the
world. These exhibitions include "But
is it Art?" at Grumpy's City Club,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, "Robogasm!" at
Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles,
and "Pearls Before Swine" and "Fat
Chance" at LA
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Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles. He
showed at New York's CBGB's in 1998 and he
was also a part of the grand re-opening
exhibition of C-Pop Gallery in Detroit. In
April, 1999, "Good 'N' Plenty," opened at
Last Chance Saloon in London; Coop's first
one-man show overseas. � He was featured in
a group show in Milan in May of 2000 and in
May 2002 Coop had a one-man show in Zurich.
His work is also featured in the Juxtapoz
Magazine's 8th Anniversary show at Santa
Monica's Track 16 Gallery and he was an
invited participant in Grand Central's "100
Artists See Satan" show in July 2004. His
"PARTS WITH APPEAL" show, a solo exhibition
from August 2004 through September 2004,
featured one painting spanning 13 panels,
each six by six feet, making this work six
feet high and 78 feet long. The piece sold
to a private collector before it was even
half finished.
Coop had two
more large-scale paintings in "Hot Chicks
and Cool Rides," at the Mendenhall Sobieski
Gallery in Pasadena (April 2 - May 3, 2005),
and a second solo show of the large
paintings (Brand Recognition) in September
2006.
Coop has also
participated in several group shows across
the United States and Europe, including the
"Customized" show at the Institute of
Contemporary Art in Boston from Oct to Dec
2000. He has created numerous album covers,
some of which include an AC/DC tribute
album, Electric Frankenstein, NOFX, and
Lords of Acid. He recently did a poster for
Altoids to promote their wildly successful
cinnamon flavored mints, and provided
imagery for both of MTV's The Return of the
Rock compilations.�
Ten pages of
Coop's images were featured in Paper
Magazine's Sept 2001 Fashion Week issue, and
a party celebrating Coop's take on high
fashion was held at Dietch Projects Gallery
in New York. Coop again graced the pages of
Paper in August 2003 with his take on
couture swimwear.
Coop has also
been branching out beyond the traditional
art arenas, and has added Music Video
Director to his list of accomplishments.
Watch for some major ad campaign and
commercial work as well as other secret
projects in the works for the near future.
Coop and Ruth
make their home in Los Angeles.
Link to one
of many interviews:
http://www.flakmag.com/features/coop.html
"Coop's
vision, custom built for speed desire,
flaming and fetishist, is the quintessence
of Southern California car culture distilled
through punk rock aggression and grunge
angst." - C-Pop gallery.
The icons he
has made his own bear witness to both his
artistic skill and savvy marketing. The work
is accessible, instantly identifiable and so
informed that it also serves as a virtual
catalogue of pop culture from the 1930s
through the mid-1960s." - CR Stecyk III,
interview for Juxtapoz Magazine.
What Coop
seems to know better than most in this
culture of denial, is the potency of
seemingly empty and quotidian signs to
provoke how the subliminal lingua of
subversion can work simultaneously with the
sanctioned language of seduction. He knows
how to tap into our psychic primordial
pop-ooze of horror, vulgarity, and
degeneration, and then how to wrap it all up
in the sweetest sugar-coated confections of
tasty tease - Carlo McCormick, from his
introduction to Devil's Advocate, the Art of
Coop.
Visit Coop at
www.coopstuff.com |