OCHI is pleased to present Out Here, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Cooper Cox. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Out Here will be on view at OCHI Sun Valley, located at 119 Lewis Street in Ketchum, Idaho from December 15, 2023 to February 24, 2024. An Artist’s Reception will be held on Thursday, December 28th from 4:00 to 7:00 PM MST.

From a young age, Cooper Cox harbored a fascination with trees, often sketching them in the margins of his schoolbooks. Allured by their elegant forms and endurance, as well as by their symbiotic relationships with neighboring organisms, Cox’s newest paintings feature snags—large, coniferous, upright trees that appear lifeless but serve as essential habitats for wildlife long after losing their leaves and flowers. Like the first line in a charcoal drawing, snags appear exposed, revealing the history of their growth as slow, incremental adjustments rather than sudden change. Snags symbolize strength and adaptability—having survived shifting climates and human interventions, Cox’s snags can occasionally bloom soulful blossoms that reflect the emotional and physical changes of senescence.

Physically immersed in each stage of the painting process, Cox begins by pushing paint across the canvas to create slicked and swirling candy-colored skies. Channeling his psychic connection to place and the dynamic, healing energy of nature, each crisp snag stands solitary and centered, rooted into a clearing and surrounded by varying volumes of low brush that manifest as undulating mounds of textured paint. The artist’s energy is apparent in every brush stroke with color and texture contributing to a suspension of disbelief from a naturalistic reality—and the creation of space for memory, emotion, and catharsis.

In proximity to dramatic landscapes like the Sawtooth Range and Craters of the Moon, the spruce-fir forests of Sun Valley, Idaho are replete with both dense greenery and wildfire-scarred hillsides that bear snags and regrowth. Born and raised in Sun Valley, Cox draws inspiration from these sublime scenes; the paintings in Out Here celebrate not only Cox’s origins, but also his resilience and rejuvenation. Rendered in paint and passion, the tension between nostalgia and spiritual growth in Cox’s paintings invites introspection and transcendent hope.