About the Speaker: Mark L. Cohen

For more than thirty years, Mark Cohen’s career was in graphic design, marketing and visual communications. Then, he turned to painting and printmaking, addressing war, injustice and violence in our nation and around the world. Cohen draws on an expansive visual archive to create intense, psychologically charged works that explore societal issues, including racism, police brutality, gun violence and mass shootings, referencing art history and current affairs. Cohen hopes his work makes us all “question power of all kinds.”

Cohen’s paintings are large scale works on unframed canvas. “We’re All Wearing Masks, Now”, his most recent body of work, portraying health care workers, heroes on the front line during the Covid-19 Pandemic, wearing protective masks, was shown at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach. Ten of these paintings were then exhibited at Tampa General Hospital. A hand-numbered and signed archival print of one of the paintings was produced for the TGH Foundation.

Cohen’s work was also included in “Ripped From the Headlines” at the Projects/ FATVillage, Fort Lauderdale, 2019, where he showed paintings from his Black Lives Matter series, and on gun violence and violence related to white supremacy.

Another powerful body of work “A Legacy to Remember”, was shown at the Holocaust Documentation and Education center in Dania Beach in 2019. An encore exhibition is there currently through December. In January, these paintings will be shown at Florida International University in Miami. An electronic version is going to the Palm Beach County Public School System to be used in their state-mandated Holocaust Education Program.

Mark Cohen is also an educator, teaching painting and printmaking at the Armory Art Center and art appreciation at Palm Beach State College.

About the Art Salons

The Art Salons are a unique gathering place for artists from throughout the South Florida region. They offer thoughtful presentations by influential professional artists whose artwork is being shown in museums and galleries in South Florida, nationally and internationally. Presenters show their work and talk about their influences, followed by stimulating discussions between the artist and the audience. These discussions cover the gamut of contemporary conceptual art practices, including cultural, socio/political, environmental, scientific, race and gender focused and aesthetic practices, the materials and techniques used to convey these ideas, and how our own work relates to the world of contemporary art. Art Salons also offer the opportunity to explore the practical side of being an artist, enhance professional development, share useful resources, and network with other artists. Art Salons have been facilitated by Elle Schorr, in conjunction with the ARMORY ART CENTER in West Palm Beach, since 2012. All are welcome to join in these timely explorations.

The Art Salons will now be presented virtually on Zoom! Tuesdays, once a month, from October to May from 7pm to 9pm. See the Armory calendar for dates or visit www.elleschorrphotography.com