{{Short description|American artist (born 1973)}} {{Infobox person | name = Liz Cohen | alt = Liz Cohen | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1973}} | birth_place = Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. | alma_mater = School of the Museum of Fine Arts,<br> Tufts University,<br> California College of the Arts | known_for = performance art, photography, automotive design, educator | website = https://www.lizcohenstudio.com/ }}
'''Liz Cohen''' (born 1973) is an American artist, known as a performance artist, photographer, educator, and automotive designer. She currently teaches at Arizona State University (ASU), and lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
== Early life and education == Cohen was born 1973 in Phoenix, Arizona and was raised there,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/liz-cohen/biography|title=Liz Cohen Biography|last=|first=|date=|website=www.artnet.com|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref> a first-generation American of a Colombian Jewish family.
Cohen graduated with a dual major in 1996 with a BFA degree in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and a BA degree in philosophy from Tufts University.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/liz-cohen-arizona-state-university-art-photography-cranbrook-9304172|title=Liz Cohen to Join ASU School of Art Faculty This Fall|last=Trimble|first=Lynn|date=2017-05-09|website=Phoenix New Times|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref><ref name="PNT" /> At the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Cohen studied with photographer Bill Burke.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://badatsports.com/2011/yes-that-is-a-car-seat-in-my-low-rider-an-interview-with-liz-cohen/|title=Yes, That is a Car Seat in my Low Rider: An Interview with Liz Cohen|last=Margolis-Pineo|first=Sarah|date=2011-11-03|website=Bad at Sports|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-31|quote=My motivation was more about how to become a part of a certain subculture...For the next piece, I wanted to take something where I could go from being on the outside-really being an outsider, to really being an insider, even if I was a freak insider. Different ways to become a part of that car culture are to build cars, to own cars, or to model for cars. So my motivation for doing the modeling was more to become a member-I never did it to make fun of that aspect of car culture. I wasn’t judging it, I was using it.}}</ref> After graduating in 1996, she travelled to Panama and documented transgender sex workers. She eventually formed relationships with her subjects and started dressing up and performing, blurring the relationship between documentation and performance.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-liz-cohen/|title=An Interview with Liz Cohen|date=2007-11-01|website=Believer Magazine|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref>
Cohen received an MFA in photography from California College of the Arts (formally known as California College of the Arts and Crafts) in 2000.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
== Career == In 2002, she was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/liz-cohen-trabantimino-58067/|title=Liz Cohens Car Culture|last=Walsh|first=Brienne|date=2010-11-04|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref> It was in Germany that she became interested in the Trabant, a common car in East Germany during the Cold War.<ref name=":2" /> This interest would go on to inform her work, including the ''Bodywork'' project.<ref name=":2" /> In 2004, Cohen moved to Phoenix, Arizona to be closer to her mother and to focus her efforts on learning about cars and car culture at ''Elwood Body Works,'' studying under mechanic Bill Cherry''.''<ref name=":4" />
In 2011, Cohen appeared as a guest judge on the Bravo television show 'Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (season 2, episode 7).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.avclub.com/work-of-art-the-next-great-artist-la-dolce-arte-1798170819|title=Work Of Art: The Next Great Artist: "La Dolce Arte"|website=TV Club|date=December 2011 |language=en-us|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref>
Her work was included in the group exhibition ''Xican-a.o.x. Body'' at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, in 2024. The show is a scholarly presentation on the experiences and contributions of Chicano artists to contemporary culture with artworks from the 1960s to today. The exhibition was curated by feminist art historian Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, and curators Marissa Del Toro, and Gilbert Vicario. An accompanying catalog was published by the Chicago University Press.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Xican-a.o.x. Body • Pérez Art Museum Miami |url=https://www.pamm.org/en/exhibition/xican-a-o-x-body/ |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1373831827 |title=Xican-a.o.x. body |date=2024 |publisher=American Federation of Arts; Hirmer Publishers |isbn=978-3-7774-4168-9 |editor-last=Fajardo-Hill |editor-first=Cecilia |location=New York, NY : Munich, Germany |oclc=on1373831827 |editor-last2=Del Toro |editor-first2=Marissa |editor-last3=Vicario |editor-first3=Gilbert |editor-last4=Chavez |editor-first4=Mike |editor-last5=Chavoya |editor-first5=C. Ondine |editor-last6=Salseda |editor-first6=Rose |editor-last7=Valencia |editor-first7=Joseph Daniel |editor-last8=Villaseñor Black |editor-first8=Charlene |editor-last9=Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum}}</ref>
=== Teaching === Between 2008 until 2017, Cohen was the Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Photography Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art.<ref name=":1" /> In 2017, she joined Arizona State University (ASU) as an Associate Professor of Photography in the School of Art, within Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.<ref name=":1" />
===''Bodywork'' project === Cohen is most notable for her ''Bodywork'' art project and the work ''Trabantamino'' (2002–2010) transforming an East German 1987 Trabant automobile into a 1973 Chevrolet El Camino using gears and hydraulics.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2012/05/frieze-art-fair-car-art-bmw|title=Photos: cArt: BMW Makes Weird Noises at the Frieze Art Fair (& Bonus Car-Art Slide Show!)|last=Berk|first=Brett|date=14 May 2012|magazine=Vanity Fair|language=en|access-date=2020-01-31|quote=Liz Cohen, Trabantamino, 2002–10: This hydraulically powered, extendible, low-rider version of the universally derided Eastern European Trabant was a real show-stopper.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/arts/design/29galleries-06.html|title=Liz Cohen: 'Trabantimino'|last=Rosenberg|first=Karen|date=2010-10-29|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-01-31|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/liz-cohens-trabantimino-comes-to-bridgehampton-1404695456|title=Liz Cohen's 'Trabantimino' Comes to Bridgehampton|last=Heyman|first=Marshall|date=2014-07-07|work=Wall Street Journal|access-date=2020-01-31|language=en-US|issn=0099-9660}}</ref> As part of the project, Cohen transformed her body and hired a personal trainer and dieted<ref>{{cite web | last = Keats | first = Jonathon | title = High-Performance Artist | publisher = Wired | date = July 2003 | url = https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/start.html?pg=10 | accessdate = 2007-09-04 }}</ref> so she could appear in a bikini to be the model for the car at lowrider shows and for a series of photographs used to promote and document the project. She had mentioned wanting to feel less like a performer and more like an "insider" of the masculine car subculture, and the female modeling aspect of the car photos were part of her membership.<ref name=":3" />
Photographs from the project have been shown at solo shows at Fargfabriken in Stockholm and Galerie Laurent Godin in Paris<ref name=PNT>Megan Irwin, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070315023008/http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2006-10-05/news/hard-body/ "Hard Body: Liz Cohen's infiltrating the lowrider world — and calling it art"], ''Phoenix New Times'', October 5, 2006</ref> as well as numerous publications, including the cover of German culture magazine ''Sleek'' (Winter 2006/2007 issue) and the November 2007 issue of ''The Believer''. The car was outfitted with motion sensors, cameras and projectors to create an interactive exhibit. The project and its documentation was financed primarily through a 2005 grant from Creative Capital.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://creative-capital.org/projects/bodywork/|title=BODYWORK|website=Creative Capital|language=en|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref>
==Awards== *2020: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. for photography.<ref>{{cite web|first1=Lynn|last1=Trimble|accessdate=2020-04-27|title=A Phoenix Artist Has Been Named a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow|url=https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/a-phoenix-artist-has-been-named-a-2020-guggenheim-fellow-11464959|date=13 April 2020|website=Phoenix New Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|accessdate=2020-04-27|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/liz-cohen/}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cite web |title=Liz Cohen: Bodywork |publisher=Creative Capital |url=http://channel.creative-capital.org/images/projects/05_Cohen.pdf |accessdate=2007-09-04 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927095517/http://channel.creative-capital.org/images/projects/05_Cohen.pdf |archivedate=2007-09-27 |url-status=dead }} *[http://www.believermag.com/issues/200711/?read=interview_cohen Liz Cohen], Nov/Dec 2007, ''Believer Magazine''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Liz}} Category:Living people Category:20th-century American Jews Category:American installation artists Category:American performance artists Category:1973 births Category:American women artists Category:Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni Category:California College of the Arts alumni Category:Artists from Phoenix, Arizona Category:21st-century American Jews Category:20th-century American women Category:21st-century American women