Eileen Cooper OBE RA
Time of Your Life

Eileen Cooper
Time of Your Life
18 October - 17 November 2005

Together and separately we have been involved with Eileen Cooper's art for almost two decades.

Now she is regularly included in important survey shows, her work is to be found in serious public and private collections, and it is discussed and referred to by collectors, writers, musicians and academics in the UK and the USA.

We are pleased to present this new body of paintings and works on paper to mark a signal moment in Eileen Cooper's career. The narrative is broadened, remaining mysterious and unspoken, the cast of characters is radically expanded and the settings, still generic, include stage sets and rehearsal studios. Tigers maintain a powerful symbolic presence within her imagery, but many other animals have wandered into this new world, often seeming completely bemused.

With the familiar vigour engaged and transformed, Cooper still grabs our attention. The scenes are sometimes quite tumultuous, the palette newly restrained and the iconic nude figure ­ part self image, part archetype ­ has a theatrical group of clothed companions, all of them having 'times of their lives'.

Clare Cooper & Benjamin Rhodes
Directors, Art First