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= Rachel Leah Cohn = Rachel Leah Cohn is an interdisciplinary artist working with painting, sculpture, video and performance. She values experimentation, collaboration and trying to find new ways to describe the world around her. Projects have included an attempt to study the inner life of oysters, building a portable sauna with green tea steam and searching for mirages out in the desert of Zekreet, Qatar.

She is currently Assistant Professor in Art and Foundations Coordinator at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, teaching time-based media and performance.

Education and Artist Residencies
Cohn received her MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University (2013) and her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design  (2005).

She attended RISD Abroad in Havana, Cuba, 2004 and RISD European Honors Summer Program, Rome, Italy, 2004

She has attended many international artist residency programs, recently at Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA), Signal Culture (Owego, NY) and a nine-month residency at the Fire Station in Doha, Qatar. She has also been an artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center (US); CAC Woodside (US); HIAP Suomenlinna (FI), Marpha Foundation (NP), Halka Art Project (TR), Mildred’s Lane (US) and Atelier Salzamt (AT). Her work is also held in many special collections.

Mirage Machine
Cohn is interested in the complex form of mirage called the Fata Morgana, through which she rhythmically references the ephemerality of memory and interpersonal relationships, as well as the shape shifting of the city itself as it develops over time. Translucent paintings and silhouettes are illuminated by rotating lamps, casting colours and shadows onto the walls of the tent, recalling a lake replaced by a landscape, magnifying its effect with echoes of sand, wind and water. (http://manege.spb.ru/)

Empathy for Oysters
In 2011 she began a project involving oysters. Cohn wanted to explore their inner lives and learn more about the life cycle of them from beginning to end. These works involved paintings and a section called Oyster Songs which was arranged and Mixed by Rick Kwan.

Hot Pot Sauna Cart
Cohn built a portable sauna with green tea steam. People could actually sit in the sauna too and it was installed on the roof of a building.

Exhibitions
Rachel has exhibited her work widely internationally, including recent exhibitions in collaboration with the Qatar Museum Authority at Kraftwerk (Berlin, Germany) and Manege Central Exhibition Hall (St. Petersburg, Russia), the Istanbul Design Biennial: School of Schools (Istanbul, Turkey), Aterlierhaus Salzamt (Linz, Austria) and the Bi-City Biennial for Urbanism and Architecture (Shenzhen, China). She also shows her work nationally, including Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (VT), White Box Gallery (NY), Ortega y Gasset Gallery (NY), Reynolds Gallery (VA). Her performance "Nonesuch Tales of Ardea Herodias," in collaboration with Laurids Sonne and Michael Ashley, was awarded best in show at 1708 Gallery's InLight Richmond 2013.


 * Memory Palace, Halka Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015.
 * WORK II, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA. 2015.
 * Exquisite Corpse, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA. 2014
 * Recuperative Tactics, Art in General, NY, NY. 2014.
 * Nonesuch Tales of Ardea Herodias, Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA. 2014.
 * SP Weather Reports (2008-2013), Center for Book Arts, NY, NY. 2014.
 * Actualize, curated by Jessica Langley, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY. 2014.
 * Nonesuch Tales of Ardea Herodias, InLight Richmond, curated by Ken Farmer, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA. 2013.
 * Almost Famous, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA. 2013.
 * The Sho, curated by Nigel Rolfe, White Box Gallery, NY. 2013.
 * MFA Thesis Show, Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA. 2013.

Publications

 * See You, editioned artist book, Marpha Foundation, Marpha, Nepal. November. “Cupcakes for Joan Jonas.” Love Letters to Artists, Ortega y Gasset Gazette, February 2014. Salsbury, Brittany. Critic’s Picks New York: “Actualize”. artforum.com. 22 Jan. 2014
 * Newton, Karen. “Night Light.” Style Weekly. 5 Nov. Commissioned Portraits, National Council of Art Administrators Conference, VCU, September, Awards commissioned by Richard Roth for Bill and Pam Royall and Richard Toscan Zalecki, Megan. “Energy and Motion.” richmondartsreview.com. 17 June SP Weather Station Report 2012, November, Norwegian Værmaskin (Weather Machine), with Frej Meinlid Larsen, Ebbe Dam Meinlid and Laurids Sonne, Queens, New York. 2013