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 Goldsmith’s College, London from 1971 to 1974 and the Royal College of Art, London from 1974 to 1977. She has been Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art and City & Guilds of London Art School since 1998.
Cooper’s first solo exhibition was held in 1979 at the Air Gallery, London. Subsequent exhibitions were held 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). Regular exhibitions of her work were held at Benjamin Rhodes Gallery from 1988 and at Art First, London from 1998.
Cooper has also participated in many group exhibitions, including 'New Contemporaries' (1974, 1976), 'Hayward Annual' (1982) the 'John Moores Liverpool Exhibition' (1986) and 'New British Painting', held at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, in the United States. Among the more recent group exhibitions which have included her work are 'Contemporary Art', at the Courtauld Institute, London (1993), 'Spirit on the Staircase: 100 Years of Print Publishing', at the RCA, V&A, London (1996-7) and 'Private View', at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (1998). Eileen Cooper lives and works in London.
Selected commissions
1982 Staircase Project, ICA, London
1993 The Art, TV programme for BBC Education,
broadcast 8 February 1994
1994 Inside Art, Channel Four, documentary
1999 Cover and illustrations for Caroline Duffy’s children’s
poetry book, 'Midnight Meeting'
Recent solo exhibitions
2008 Art First, London
2007 Art First, London
2004 Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow
2003 Art Space Gallery, London
2002 Works on Paper, Art First, London
2000 Raw Material Part II, Art First, London
Raw Material Part I, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
1999 Second Skin, Eileen Cooper in the 80’s and 90’s, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
1998 Open Secrets, Art First, London
1997 Graphic Work, Gallery in Cork Street
(with Benjamin Rhodes), London
1996 Graphic Work, Exhibition touring to Darlington and Harrogate
1995 Bohun Gallery, Henley on Thames
1994 Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London
Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London
1993/4 Life Lines Touring exhibition: Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, Lancaster; Spacex Gallery, Exeter; The University Gallery, University of Northumbria, Newcastle; Brighton Museum & Art Gallery; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield; The Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, Warwickshire.
1992 Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London
1990 Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London
Public collections
Arts Council of Great Britain
British Council
British Museum Society
Cleveland Gallery
Contemporary Arts Society
Imperial College, London
Kunsthalle, Nuremberg (purchase prize)
Manchester City Art Galleries
New Hall, Cambridge
Open University
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Warwick University
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk
