The mind of an artist can be complex. Inspiration can strike at any moment and the materials used to create are endless. For Raphaele Cohen-Bacry, the influence of art on the artist and the viewer has always been interesting.
CSMA is excited to present Cohen-Bacry’s “Collective Recollection: Reclaiming Innocence.” Her mixed media work centers on the repurposing of material, images and concepts. Through her collages and sculptures, the Los Angeles-based artist reflects on our ability to adapt in a challenging world, putting broken pieces together to create a work of art.
“In my collage process I tear and assemble images of famous art or designers’ objects, as well as common pictures and wallpaper scraps to create new images of my own,” Cohen-Bacry said. “This is my way of repurposing material and paying tribute to artists that came before me.”
Her “make-believe collage” large paintings go a step further by reuniting all the different fragments of a collage within a single medium and one surface, the paint and the canvas. They thus become metaphors for healing what was broken and for offering comfort and a source of energy.
The exhibit is open now through June 30th.
Cohen-Bacry is a painter and mixed media artist, born and raised in Paris, France. She came to Los Angeles in 2003. Most of her formal training was completed in France where she learned from artists, mainly at Les Ateliers Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, while earning a performing arts degree from l’École de la Rue Blanche. She also attended printmaking classes and hours of live model sessions at la Grande Chaumière, eager to experiment with different techniques.
The works in this exhibition explore our common recollection of nature, experienced as children through physical encounters, books and other storytelling. According to Cohen-Bacry,
“I believe we all carry idealized images of nature, a lost paradise that we are always yearning to reclaim. The large paintings I selected are inspired by my research about collage and are a patchwork of memories and snapshots of sceneries, real or imagined. The rock sculptures form a suite of supernatural or mystical beings, all part of the inner world I am offering to the public.”
See a slideshow of the exhibit here. We look forward to seeing you!
By TaLeiza Calloway-Appleton
