Eileen Cooper RA

Born: 10 June 1953, Glossop, Derbyshire, UK
Elected RA: 24 May 2001
Category of Membership: Printmaker

Lots of people's lives are thrown together in my pictures, but there is also a strong sense of separateness. I find it fascinating that, in the busy lives that everyone leads, people have a sense of their own time, their own moments of reverie.
Eileen Cooper RA

Eileen Cooper, Get in on the Act Eileen Cooper studied at Goldsmiths College, London (1971 to 1974) and the Royal College of Art, London (1974 to 1977). For many years she was a Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College (where she was made a Fellow in 2006) and City & Guilds of London Art School, before becoming Head of Printmaking at the Royal Academy Schools, where in 2011 she was the first woman to be elected Keeper.

Well known as a printmaker and painter, her stylised work is rooted in a figurative tradition and characterised by the use of bold linearity and formal composition. Her images are imbued with playful narratives and her protagonists are often surrounded by artefacts and imagery that testifies to the tension between quotidian and romantic concerns.

Eileen Cooper, 'Tracing the Shadow', 2011. Oil on Canvas. 137 x 106.5 cm. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1979 at the Air Gallery, with subsequent shows throughout the UK, including Blond Fine Art, London (1982, 1983 and 1985), Artspace Gallery, Aberdeen (1985), Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (1986) and Artsite Gallery, Bath (1987). Since 1988, regular exhibitions of her work have been held at Benjamin Rhodes Gallery and at Art First, London.

She has also participated in many group exhibitions, including New Contemporaries (1974, 1976), Hayward Annual (1982), John Moores XV (1986) and New British Painting, held at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, in the United States.

Read an interview with Eileen Cooper in RA Magazine Autumn 2011

Recent Solo Exhibitions

Eileen Cooper, Alayrac Series No. 11, 2010 2011 'Showing Off', Art First, London
2010 'Collages', Sir Hugh Casson Room, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2009 'Dreams of Elsewhere', Art First, London
Brook Gallery, Budleigh Salterton, Devon
2008 'Crossing', Art First Projects, London
'Taking Stock: The Printmaking of Eileen Cooper RA', Clifford Chance, London and The Cornerstone Gallery, Liverpool Hope University
2007 'Deeper Water', Art First, London
2006 'An Encore: Eileen Cooper', Art First Projects, London
2005 'Time of Your Life', Art First, London
2004 'Subject Matter – Paintings, Drawings & Prints', Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow
2003 'Eileen Cooper, 50', Art First, London
'Eileen Cooper at 50, A Celebration', Art First, New York
Art Space Gallery, London
2002 'Passions: New Work on Paper', Art First, London
'Passion', Art First, New York
2000 'Raw Material: Eileen Cooper', Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
'Raw Material Part II', Art First, London
'Homecoming – The Prints of Eileen Cooper', Clifford Chance, London
1999 'Second Skin', Eileen Cooper in the 80’s and 90’s, touring to Wolverhampton, Nottingham and Eastbourne
1998 'Open Secrets', Art First, London
Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset
1997 'Graphic Work', Gallery in Cork Street with Benjamin Rhodes, London
1996/7 'Graphic Work', touring to Darlington, Harrogate and Scarborough
1994 Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London
'Shapechanger', Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London
1993/4 'Lifelines', touring to Lancaster, Exeter, Newcastle, Sheffield, Warwick

Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 'Twenty Years', Art First, London
2010 'Academicians' (with David Mach, Neil Macpherson and Michael Visocchi), Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow
2009 'ZOOM', Art First, London
2008 'Dialogue', Art First, London
'Hugh Stoneman – Master Printer', Tate St Ives, Cornwall
'10 (The Chris Orr Printmaking Years)', Gulbenkian Galleries, RCA, London
2007 'Leben Lieben', RISE Gallery, Berlin
2006 'Translations – Re-working from the National Gallery', Art First, London
'Drawing Breath – 10 Years of the Jerwood Annual', Wimbledon College Of Art, London (touring UK and Sydney, Australia)
2004 'The Jerwood Drawing Prize', Jerwood Space, London
'Tradition & Innovation', Scarborough Museum and Art Gallery
'Visual Wit', Royal Academy, London
2003 'Art First in Print', Art First, London
'The Divine Comedy', Art Space Gallery, London
'ExPress – Printmaking From The Royal College Of Art', RCA, London
2000 'Hand To Hand (with Julian Stair)', Art First, London
1998 'The Contemporary Print Show Part I', The Barbican Centre
1997 'The Body Politik', Wolverhampton Art Gallery
1996 'Spirit on the Staircase', 100 Years of Print Publishing, RCA, V&A, London
1994/5 'An American Passion, The Susan Kasen Summer & Robert D, Summer Collection of Contemporary Painting', McLellan Galleries, Glasgow & Royal College of Art, London
1993 'Contemporary Art at the Courtauld', Courtauld Institute, London
1992 'The New Patrons, Twentieth Century Art from Corporate Collections', Christie’s, London
'Myth, Dream and Fable', Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
'Innocence and Experience', touring exhibition organised by the South Bank Centre and Manchester City Art Gallery: Manchester, Hull, Nottingham and Glasgow
'20th Century Women’s Art', New Hall, Cambridge
1991/2 'Look Here Upon This Picture and On This', selected by Norbert Lynton, South Bank Centre, touring exhibition
1991 Woodlands Art Gallery, London with Paula Rego
'The Outsider: British Figuration Now', Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy

Selected Collections
Arts Council of Great Britain
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
British Council
British Museum Society
Cleveland Gallery
Contemporary Arts Society
Imperial College London
Kunsthalle, Nuremberg
Manchester City Art Galleries
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Walpole Library, Yale University, USA

Awards and Commissions
2008/9 Artist in residence, Lewisham College
1999 Cover and illustrations for Caroline Duffy’s children’s poetry book, 'Midnight Meeting'
Arts & Humanities Research Board, Award for Ceramic work
1998/9 Artist in residence, Dulwich Picture Gallery
1994 Inside Art, Documentary for Channel 4 Television
1993 The Art, TV Broadcast, BBC Education

Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

• Royal Academy of Arts