COURTTNEY COOPER

Courttney Cooper (b. 1977) draws large elaborate and exuberant maps from his physical and psychological experiences in Cincinnati, Ohio. Gluing together pieces of found paper from his job at a grocery store, Cooper’s obsessive drawings, rendered with ballpoint pens, map out neighborhoods in his hometown in remarkable detail. Buildings, streets, and conversations are all recorded from memory.

His maps depict more than just streets and monuments, often addressing the season in which it was made, current events and projects going on locally, like the WEBN fireworks or the Taste of Cincinnati, even going back into the drawings to update them when new buildings are constructed or torn down.

Cooper is always celebrating Oktoberfest in his life and in his work, you will find references to beer, balloons, pretzels, and German culture.  Throughout the sprawling maps are written thoughts and phrases hidden beneath the landscape and revealed within the open white space of the paper.

Courttney has exhibited extensively in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area including the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati and The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Covington, KY.

His 2024 solo exhibition, “America’s Octoberfest. Zinzinnati. U.S.A.,” at Western Exhibitions in Chicago was covered by artforum, and his solo show at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in 2016, was reviewed in both artforum.com and New City.

Cooper won The Wynn Newhouse Foundation Award in 2015 and his work is included in a number of private and public collections including The Cincinnati Art Museum and The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.

Courttney’s Cincinnati Map from 2011 was recently acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His 2-person show (with Cole Carothers) at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2013 was reviewed in CityBeat and AEQAI.

Courttney Cooper is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago, IL.

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