Trotter&Sholer is pleased to announce representation of Ezra Cohen as well as
his first solo exhibition, The Desert. Cohen has been painting for 20 years,
studying under mentors Edla Cusick and Knox Martin. The Desert presents five
figurative paintings inspired by art history, mythology, and solitary artistic
exploration.
Cohen’s works are an exercise in storytelling. They draw from life, myth, and
nature. Cohen is heavily influenced by his passion for and study of art history.
References to Titian, Cezanne, Ingres and Matisse can be found in his paintings.
His works strive to honor the artists who came before him. He uses his work to
tackle life’s big questions, approaching each canvas as an opportunity to
explore, engage with history, and allow the work to detach and transform.
The Desert obtained its name from the largest painting in the exhibition. At its
center is a figure, represented in absence, drawing. The work is layered and
exacting. Woman Dreaming depicts a figure in a clawfoot bathtub bathing with
her projection of Self. Sol: The Beginning captures large black snakes,
constricting a sleeping body. This is Cohen’s portrayal of the fall of man, while
Rosemary echoes some of Sol’s imagery in an intimate scene after the birth of a
Nephilim. Prometheus after Titian depicts an eagle eating Prometheus’ eternal
liver. Each work represents a moment in a larger story, revealing details that
straddle the universal and the particular.
The Artist builds the surface gradually with thin coats of oil paint; the work is an
exercise in balance and contrast. As he works, figures emerge and shapes are
born, recurring in reverse or upside down, morphing and rhyming with the
whole. This exhibition invites the viewer to journey through scenes of sacrifice,
life, death and creation.
