Leah Cooper is a Baltimore based installation artist. She received her BA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland and her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Through site responsive drawings she examines the liminal state that exists between what is noticed and what is overlooked and is interested in employing the contextually dependent nature of her work as a means to create a heuristic state that invites the viewer to complete the piece.
She finds art production at the intersection of theory and practice an intriguing and demanding way of working. Questions arising from theoretical studies are articulated in the artwork; resulting output is then examined and mined for further questions.
Although reflexive, this dialogue between idea and ‘object’ is not insular. Rather, it is an attempt to maintain an open approach, centrifugal in nature, generating inquiries at the edge of current methods and disciplines.
Leah has been a recipient of the Franz and Virginia Bader grant, Maryland State Art Council Individual Artist Grants in 2017 & 2011, and a William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund B Grant in 2013. She was a 2015 Trawick Prize Finalist and a 2010 Janet & Walter Sondheim Finalist. In addition to her year as finalist, she was a Sondheim Semifinalist in 2012, 2014, and 2015. She has exhibited her work at The Baltimore Museum of Art, Arlington Art Center, VisArts Center, Montpellier Arts Center, and RTKL Architecture Firm.