hbg is kicking off the fall season with two amazing solo exhibitions for artists jacob cooley and jean frater alexander. long time north carolina artist jacob cooley paints the salt marshes of the low country surrounding north and south carolina and into georgia. these 3 states account for 2/3 of the marshlands found on the east coast. the marshes are a truly special habitat with magical qualities captured in all their essence in jacob’s paintings. he exquisitely interprets the colors of the sunsets and sunrises along with the ebb and flow of the tides. cooley’s paintings are void of brushstrokes adding to the quiet stillness only found in nature. his main subject is the light on the land and water creating a beacon that cannot be resisted.
jean alexander frater’s torn and woven canvases are an intricate study of deconstruction and reconstruction. she paints large swaths of canvas 3 to 4 times the size of the finished project only to then tear by hand into thin strips before starting the process of weaving them back together in complex patterns. the process is complicated and fascinating to wrap your head around why someone would go to all this trouble to create a work of art. her work is exactly what fuels our love of the arts to come up with an idea through extensive practice that morphs into a whole new, exciting concept singularly your own vision and technique. frater’s work is so unique and thought out it takes the viewer a minute to figure out. jean often adds appendages of woven canvas to her paintings stemming from her time spent working with ceramics. she wanted to apply the idea of adding onto to clay, handbulding through the coil method to her canvases. we are in awe of her paintings and her intricate steps to create them.
jacob cooley was born in 1968. he received an mfa in painting from the university of north carolina at chapel hill in 1993 and graduated in 1990 with a bfa from the university of georgia, athens. he studied at antioch college in yellow springs, ohio from 1986 to 1988. his paintings are informed by harmonious and hallowed places, landscapes about contemplation and the spirit, but also about the transient, ephemeral characteristics of light and darkness and ultimately of life. jacob cooley's work attempts to capture and hold the instant when the orange of the sun is about to completely scatter into the diffused light of dusk or the thunderclouds move to entirely obscure the horizon. cooley has received numerous awards and reviews of his work are included in major publications. his paintings are collected nationally by museums, corporations and private collectors.
jacob cooley in his north carolina studio
jean alexander frater experiments with the materials inherent to painting and then integrates other histories, traditions and language into this form. alexander frater was a 2017-2018 chicago artists bolt resident, received an mfa from school of art the institute of chicago, and a ba in philosophy, from the university of dayton, ohio. her work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as the wexner center for arts, columbus; el museo cultural de santa fe; images festival, toronto; possible project space, brooklyn; ben-gurion. airport, tel aviv; kulturhuset, stockholm, aspect/ratio, chicago and guest spot @ the reinstitute, baltimore.
frater works with painting as an object rather than a picture. she converses with the materiality of each piece in an effort to allow it to retain its voice. treating the surface of the canvas like fabric, frater folds to disrupt the forms she has painted on: the gestures of making are integral interests for frater, seeing the ways that these different gestures create different meanings. the ripples that result are a refreshing approach to grids, stripes, gradients, often used in abstraction. the large woven paintings are intensely physical, and the smallest ones are experimental in form and color.
jean alexander frater in her chicago studio
“i experiment with the materials inherent to painting and then integrate other histories, traditions and language into this form. ”
all available work by each artist can be viewed on our website under their individual tabs including sizing + pricing. hidell brooks gallery is by appointment. please call the gallery if you have any further questions.