© Portrait photo by Jeremia Deschenes.
Dave Cooper participates in the Popland 3.0 exhibition, 2023.
Dave Cooper (1967, Nova Scotia, Canada) is a Canadian artist known for his oil paintings but also as cartoonist and animator.
During the 1990s, Cooper gained recognition for his underground comics created for Fantagraphics Books in Seattle. His periodical Weasel received critical acclaim, winning both the underground Ignatz Award and the Harvey Award in 2000. Cooper's psycho-erotic graphic novel Ripple also garnered attention, featuring an introduction by David Cronenberg.
In the early 2000s, Cooper transitioned to oil painting and exhibited his works in prestigious galleries across Los Angeles and New York City. In 2002, he was honored with a major retrospective of his comic book artwork in Angouleme and Paris. Monographs of his paintings, featuring introductions by comedian David Cross and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, were also published.
Around 2008, Cooper ventured into animation and successfully pitched two original kids TV shows, 'Pig Goat Banana Cricket' for Nickelodeon and 'The Bagel and Becky Show' for Teletoon/BBC. In 2016, he released his short adult film, 'The Absence of Eddy Table', which garnered international acclaim and won multiple awards.
In 2017, Cooper returned to oil painting and embarked on ambitious new works for his largest gallery show to date, featuring 70 paintings for Paris 2020. He also completed a significant commission for a museum in Madrid, creating a 13-foot-wide piece inspired by Jeronimus Bosch's 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'.
In 2019, Cooper's work was slated to be featured in a 300-page English/French retrospective titled 'Pillowy, the Art of Dave Cooper', published by a French publisher. Additionally, he joined the board of directors of Saw Gallery, a cutting-edge artist-run center in Ottawa.
Currently, Cooper resides in Ottawa, Canada, continuing to push boundaries and captivate audiences with his diverse artistic talents.
