Helen S. Cohen

American artist Helen S. Cohen takes up the thread of Abstract Expressionism in her mixed media compositions. The scratched marks, diffuse washes, collage elements and broad brushstrokes fleetingly evoke landscapes and figures, but very quickly retrain our focus on the materials themselves. Fittingly, she cites the formal delights of the painting process as her main source of inspiration, informed by artists like Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly — though Cohen’s influences seem to stretch further back as well. Yet her work remains vividly contemporary: each piece leaps to the fore, with graphite, collage and bold streaks of paint bursting through layers of acrylic wash.