Ian Cooper (artist)

Ian Cooper (born 1978) is an American visual artist,^[1] film producer, and academic,^[2] best known for his collaborations^[3] with Jordan Peele; he currently serves as creative director of Peele's Monkeypaw Productions.^[4]

Cooper has had solo exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad. His "mixed-media sculptures"^[5] have been written about in The New York Times,^[6] Artforum,^[7] among others. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art^[8] and the Pérez Art Museum.^[9]

Cooper's art has been described as "obsessed with the dark side of adolescence and with how the transition from youth to adulthood is acted out in a variety of aesthetic statements."^[7] Cooper's sculptures of "institutionalized surfaces"^[10] "filtered through the aesthetics of his 1980s childhood, pervert the forms and features of K-12."^[10] Works have featured references to ballet barres,^[5] institutional projection screens,^[5] and a "penetrated matador's cape."^[5] Writing about his work, Artforum critic Alex Javonovich stated that Cooper's sculptures are "sensuous yet sterile" and "frantic and batty."^[11]

Cooper's artistic style can be seen reflected in his film work, and themes and elements from his exhibiting art career have appeared in his contributions to films, including ballet barres^[5] in scenes from Jordan Peele's Us.

In 2017, Cooper was brought on as the Creative Director^[4] of Monkeypaw Productions, as well as becoming Jordan Peele's producing partner.^[12] Since joining the company, Cooper has produced the following feature films: Peele's 2019's Us; Nia DaCosta's Candyman (2022); and Peele's 2022 film Nope.

Feature Films:

Us

During filming, Ian Cooper went to great lengths^[13] to ensure key plot points weren't leaked early, in one instance telling passersby that the crew was filming a Verizon commercial.

Candyman

Cooper spoke highly about the unity of the cast and crew throughout the filming process.^[14] Reviews of the film praised the writing,^[15] directing,^[16] and social critiques^[17]

Nope

While few details have been released about Monkeypaw's latest film Nope, the teaser announcement^[18] included a released date of July 22, 2022. It has been confirmed^[19] that the cast will include Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun. Cooper is credited on the film as a producer.

Before entering the film world, Ian Cooper was on the sculpture faculty at New York University's Steinhardt School Department of Arts & Arts Professions from 2005 to 2017. Cooper also served as the lead faculty of the Senior Studio Program and was the program coordinator for the Senior Honors Studio program^[20] across the first three years of its inception. During his tenure at NYU, Cooper co-created the NYU Curatorial Collaborative^[2] which remains a capstone experience to the thesis program, as well as a cross-departmental program that unites a select group of curatorial graduate students from The Institute of Fine Art^[21] with a group of jury-selected undergraduate visual artists from the Steinhardt Studio Art program. The initiative "fosters interdisciplinary teamwork that prepares both the artists and art historians for future projects in their respective fields"^[22] and results in a series of exhibitions annually, held at the 80WSE Gallery.^[23] Cooper also partnered with artist Sara Greenberger Rafferty to teach a Cartoon Logic course at Michigan's prestigious Ox-Bow School of Art.^[24][25]

• Ian Cooper at IMDb