St Louis, MO
Alika Cooper
3/19/15 6:34 PM
Ironing boards and grey fabric might not seem like materials belonging in the studio of an artist set on erotically reinventing the painted canvas. In the hands of Alika Cooper they somehow do. Cooper, who has used patterned and colored textiles in the past, here uses cut cloth in various shades of grey—not fifty, but enough—applying it to canvas with adhesive and heat in configurations that cohere into geometric interpretations of bodies and other, less recognizable forms. Art deco and camouflage preside as stylistic guides. Visible pencil marks and stitching distract in some works, as do overly representative images. The more abstract, the better to sustain an erotics of close looking and surprise.
—Lori Waxman