Cari Cohen was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is currently based in Miami where she makes work that is inspired by architecture and her surroundings. Cohen’s visual language shares hard-edged lines with curves, illusory perspectives, geometry, and urban symbols. Current projects have been shown at Miami Dade College where she presented her two distinct Series: Art + Light on pure Geometry and Art + Light on Organic. She has also shown her work at Art Fairs such as Art Santa Fe, NM, Art Miami and Context, FL, and at galleries including Contemporaneo Gallery, Asheville, NC and Wit Gallery, Lenox, MA. She has shown in private and public institutions including Citibank.
Cohen received a degree in Architecture from the University of Buenos Aires, also specializing in multimedia design and photography. She then established her own architecture and interior design firm in Buenos Aires, creating projects for international companies. Then in 2001, she relocated to the USA where she completed coursework in painting at Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University, also studying techniques for working with metals.
Statement
Cari Cohen's two- and three-dimensional works combines aspects of architecture, her hometown of Buenos Aires, the urban environment, and bright graffiti colors. The engines of her art are spontaneous and complemented with technology to see how to materialize and innovate. By using materials that include plaster, acrylic spray paint, plexiglass, and an image transfer process, she sculpts and paints forms that reference the built environment and the natural world. These, with the colors used in graffiti, are evocative of the structure and chaos found in urban environments. Geometry is used by the artist as an architectural reference and acknowledgment of inspiration from masters like Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. She combines the curvilinear with the straight to insert the organic into the angular square, breaking the rational into the new and fantastic. Her work is an exploration of the possible, and only feels complete when disorder integrates with order.