BFA, Studio Art – Single Discipline Focus (Painting & Drawing)

isabelcooling@gmail.com
https://imnotisvbel.wordpress.com/
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Artist Statement

What if I Cleaned Everything

Isabel Cooling’s work explores the unexpected materiality of concrete as a means to bridge the gap between contemporary painting and sculpture. As a painter creating sculptural objects from concrete, plaster, and other various industrial materials, Cooling layers these materials within the cement and emphasizes the many surfaces of concrete through chance. Layering the pieces facing down so the surface is never planned and pieces are built from the inside out, Cooling experiments with multiple dichotomies through gestural and process-based abstraction, and the physicality of making. Cooling acknowledges the ubiquity of concrete in our daily lives, acting as a foundation and structure for the world around us, yet Cooling questions how the material might function within (or in opposition to) the tradition of painting.   When contemplating concrete, we have connotations of roughness, construction, heaviness, and masculinity, yet Cooling brings forth the delicate and fragile nature of the material by affirming natural, subtle color palettes produced by industrial grayscale. By using concrete as a form of painting, and displaying it in the gallery setting, Cooling elevates the material in a manner that demands the viewer notice what otherwise might go entirely unnoticed in everyday life.