Cohen’s painting practice prioritizes material discovery, visual diversity, and deep engagement with emergent thought. As Barry Schwabsky writes of her work, the picture plane is a space of mental formation; “It is not a place where things land, but one from which they can emerge. The physical actuality of every mark Cohen makes is manifest, but their concerted effect transcends their literal presence, catches fire in the mind’s eye, or the eye’s mind, becoming a different sort of reality.”
The bountiful imagery in Cohen’s paintings affixes itself between the power of suggestion and the edges of perception. Expansive mark-making teases out a slowness of looking that encourages dexterous viewership and evokes emerging connections. In this way, Cohen’s paintings are invitations to see, presenting an endless arrangement of organizational strategies across works. Possibility is an important precursor of her paintings, and she draws on an eclectic range of artistic influences to continually expands her oeuvre with distinct works that both align and misalign. The uniqueness of Cohen’s paintings convey exquisite experiences that sharpen awareness and deepen humility in the imagination.
Jeane Cohen is based in Brooklyn, New York