Liz Cohen (b. 1973) is a photographer and performance artist whose decades-long career focuses largely on the intersections of immigration, industry, labor and women’s representation in popular media. Cohen is perhaps best known for her BODYWORK project, in which she simultaneously transformed a dilapidated East German Trabant into an American El Camino lowrider while inhabiting a new identity herself as a car customizer and bikini model. Through this immersive series, Cohen produced a profoundly influential body of work which challenges American cultural norms as they pertain to the eroticization of the automobile industry as well as the challenging role of women’s bodies in that space. Cohen’s most recent series, BODY MAGIC (2020), sees the artist further explore similar themes. In black and white photographs, Cohen poses with the iconic lowrider model Dazza Del Rio in images which make reference to Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs of the bodybuilder Lisa Lyon.
The artist’s work is currently included in the landmark exhibition, With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932, at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills (MI) until September, with an accompanying catalogue. In early 2021, Cohen was the subject of a survey retrospective, Body/Magic, at the Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe (AZ).
Recent group exhibitions include Unapologetic: All Women, All Year at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (AZ) in 2020; Stories of Abstraction: Contemporary Latin American Art in the Global Context at the Phoenix Art Museum (AZ) in 2020; and Shapeshifters: Transformations in Contemporary Art at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills (MI) in 2020. Cohen’s work was also featured in 2011 at the 54th Venice Biennale. Since 2017, Cohen has served as Associate Professor of the School of Art at Arizona State University, Tempe.
In 2020, Cohen received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Past awards also include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award (2019); the Creative Capital Foundation Project Grant (2005); and a MacDowell Colony Grant (2001).
Born: 1973, Phoenix, AZ Resides: Phoenix, AZ
Education
MFA, Photography, California College of Art, San Francisco, CA - 2000 BFA, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA – 1996 BA, Philosophy, cum laude with high thesis honors, Tufts University, Medford, MA - 1996
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, ‘Liz Cohen: Café Pan-Soviético Americano’, Detroit, MI
2021 Sicardi Ayers Bacino, ‘The Poet’, Houston, TX Arizona State University Art Museum, ‘Body/Magic’, Tempe, AZ
2019 The Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, ‘Liz Cohen: Hydro Force’, Richmond, VA 2018 David Klein Gallery, ‘Stories Better Told By Others’, Detroit MI
2015 Cranbrook Art Museum, ‘Him’, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2012 David Klein Gallery, ‘On the River Road: from Presidio to Terlingua’, Birmingham, MI Land of Tomorrow, ‘Routine Labor’, Louisville, KY
2010 Salon 94, ‘Trabantimino’, New York, NY Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona, ‘Liz Cohen: Zwickau Routine’, Tucson, AZ
2009 El Paso Museum of Art, ‘Liz Cohen: The Builder and the Bikini Model’, El Paso, TX
2008 Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas, ‘No Room for Baggage’, El Paso, TX
2006 Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris, FR
2005 Färgfabriken, ‘BODYWORK, The Gender Turntable’, Stockholm, SE
2004 Modern Culture, ‘Bikini Carwash’, New York, NY
2003 Manolo Garcia Gallery, ‘Magically Yours’; with Catalina Rodriguez, San Francisco, CA
2002 Akademie Schloss Solitude, ‘Neurotic Transbant (The Beginning)’, Stuttgart, DE Akademie Schloss Solitude, ‘Magically Yours’; with Catalina Rodriguez, Stuttgart, DE Spanganga, ‘Bikini Carwash’, San Francisco, CA
2001 Detour 888, ‘Interview 9802: Liza Minelli, A Problem In Translation’, San Francisco, CA
2000 San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, ‘Canal’, San Francisco, CA
Projects/Events
2022
‘Greer Lankton Symposium’, Performance with Eric Crosley, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
2014 The Bridge, Bridghampton, NY
2013 Lowrider Super Show, ‘Mainstreet Showdown’, First Place Compact Radical and Special Recognition, Española, NM Lowrider Super Show, ‘Fresno Super Show’, Fresno, CA Projects/Events
2008 Scottsdale Civic Center Mall, Scottsdale Public Art, ‘Radical Mod’, Scottsdale, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 The Cheech – Riverside Art Museum, ‘Xican—a.o.x. Body’, Riverside, CA
(upcoming) Denver Art Museum, ‘Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion’, Denver, CO
El Paso Museum of Art, ‘A Dream in the Shadow of Something Real: Women in Art’, El Paso, TX
CCS Bard Hessel Museum, ‘Ya Nada Es Como Antes (Nothing Is as It Used to Be)’, Annandale-onHudson, NY
Riverbank Arts, ‘Timelines: The Art of the Calendar’, Flint, MI
2022 Phoenix Art Museum, ‘Desert Rider’, Phoenix, AZ
The Mattress Factory, ‘Pop-Aganda’, Pittsburgh, PA
2021 Cranbrook Art Museum, ‘With Eyes Opened: Cranbrook Academy of Art Since 1932’, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Museo del Grabado ICPNA, 'Gráfica América', Lima, Peru
The Church, ‘Road Rage’, Sag Harbor, NY
Taller 99, ‘Gráfica América’, Santiago, CL
2020 Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Unapologetic’, Scottsdale, AZ
Phoenix Art Museum. ‘Stories of Abstraction’, Phoenix, AZ
Cranbrook Art Museum, ‘Shapeshifters: Abstraction and Representation in Contemporary Art’, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2019 Toledo Museum of Art, ‘Life is a Highway’, Toledo, OH
Museum of Latin American Art, ‘Gráfica América’, Long Beach, CA
Muted Horn, ‘Beyond Our Means’, Cleveland, OH
2018 Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, ‘Breaking the Wall’, Valencia, ES
Cutler Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center, ‘Tikkun Olam 3: Repairing the World’, Phoenix, AZ The Halsted Gallery, ‘Face Forward: Portraits 1939 to Present’, Birmingham, MI
2017 Visionaire/The Gallery at Cadillac House, ‘Visionaire Racing’, New York, NY
Der Grief/Unseen Amsterdam, ‘Thread Count’, Amsterdam, NL
2016 Embassy, ‘Together/Alone’, Los Angeles, CA Galerie Laurent Godin, ’10 Years // 10 Ans’, Paris, FR
2015 Art Basel, ‘Our Hidden Futures’, Miami Beach, FL
David Klein Gallery, ‘First Show’, Detroit, MI
Bolinas Art Museum, ‘Self Made’, Bolinas, CA
2014 Site Santa Fe, ‘SITElines: Unsettled Landscapes’, Santa Fe, NM
Marianne Boesky Gallery, ‘Another Look at Detroit’, New York, NY
Pitzer College Art Galleries, ‘Racial Imaginary’, Claremont, CA
Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, ‘Wrong's What I Do Best’, San Francisco, CA
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, ‘The Last Brucennial’, New York, NY
2013 Anonymous Gallery, ‘Commercial Break’, Mexico City, MX
Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, ‘Art X’, Detroit, MI
2012 Eric Firestone Gallery, ‘Parts and Service’, East Hampton, NY
2011 Ballroom Marfa, ‘Autobody’, Marfa, TX
Museum Tinguely, ‘Car Fetish. I Drive Therefore I Am’, Basel, CH Selected
Centre de Arte Contemporain, Maymec, ‘Femme Objet / Femme Sujet’, Meymac, FR Cranbrook Art Museum, ‘No Object Is an Island’, Bloomfield Hills, MI
54th Venice Biennale, Venice, ‘Commercial Break’, Garage Projects, Venice, IT
2009 Northlight Gallery, Arizona State University, ‘Hall of Mirrors’, Tempe, AZ
2008 Färgfabriken Norr, ‘Teleport Färgfabriken’, Östersund, SE
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Car Culture’, Scottsdale, AZ Center, ‘18’’, Berlin, DE
2007 Oakland Museum of California, ‘Artists of Invention: A Century of CCA’, Oakland, CA
Galeria de la Raza, ‘No Distance Is More Awesome’, San Francisco, CA
2006 Ex Mercato Ortofrutticolo, ‘FUORI USO 2006 – ALTERED STATES: Are You Experienced’, Pescara, IT (Travelling Exhibition) Veleterzní Palác/National Gallery, ‘Tina b.: The Prague Contemporary Art Festival (Same Same But Different)’, Prague, CZ Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis and Pence Gallery, ‘Joint Venture: Selections from the Dr. Barry S. Ramer Collection and Other Photographs’, Davis, CA
2005 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, ‘Bay Area Now 4’, San Francisco, CA De Bond, ‘Boost In the Shell (The Pursued)’, Brugge, BE
Honors
2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York, NY 2019 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY Honors (cont)
2011 Kresge Artist Fellow, Kresge Foundation, Detroit, MI
2008 Traveling Scholars’ Award, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2007 Artist’s Project Grant, Arizona Commission for the Arts, Phoenix, AZ
2005 Creative Capital Foundation Project Grant, Creative Capital Foundation For the Arts, New York, NY
2002 San Francisco Award To Visual Artists, Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue, New York, NY
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, DE; studio fellowship
2001 The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH; studio residency
1999 The Photography Institute, New York, NY; fellowship
Public Collections
Ballroom Marfa
Columbus Museum of Art
Cranbrook Art Museum
Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA)
El Paso Museum of Art Färgfabriken
Kadist Los Angeles
County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Museum of Latin American Art (MoLA)
Phoenix Art Museum Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)
Scottsdale Public Art
Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas
Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
Tucson Museum of Art