MOCA GA / Calendar

A Statement from Susan Cofer

Do you ever wonder what urge, what force, what desire compelled a member of our species thousands of years ago to enter a damp, dark cave with the idea to make an image? Have you ever wondered, as I have, why humans year after year wake on a morning itching to shape something to be seen or heard? Some might say it was for God, or an antidote to chaos, or simply for money, and yet I wonder if it is in our cells, even before a reason, to move inexorably toward communication.

Here is another question. Have you ever wondered what people see or hear in art that makes them want to embrace it, collect it and protect it? The Greek statues, the Chinese soldiers, the African masks, the pottery, the tunes, the harmonies -all things we treasure long after they were made. Why save art? Or another question: why destroy it? How potent can art be that it incites destruction?

What of the effort – it is not a new thing- to translate the visual into the verbal? Or write about what is heard? What rests in the head of the critic that says, “Put words to this sight”? “Describe what you have heard.”

Surely you have joined me in wondering about the dedication of teachers, and not only the ones in schools, anyone who wants to explain, to pass along acquired knowledge. What compels a person to give and give and give hoping to share the spark of inspiration?

—Susan Cofer, 2018

About Susan Cofer

Susan Cofer earned her BA in Art History at Hollins College in Roanoke, VA and continued her studies at Georgia State University. Her work has two distinct manifestations: drawings inspired by biomorphic forms painstakingly rendered in a series of vertical lines; and, sculptural portraits commissioned by friends and private patrons constructed mostly of papier mâché also with exacting detail. Cofer has exhibited extensively throughout the Southeast with solo exhibitions at Solomon Projects, Swan Coach House Gallery, Berry College, and Madison-Morgan Cultural Center. In 2012, Cofer had a large retrospective exhibition at the High Museum of Art entitled Draw Near.  Her work belongs to many private, corporate and museum collections. She was featured in a solo exhibition of new works at MOCA GA in 2010, Absence of Certainty, alongside a group exhibition of drawings, Certain Artists, which she curated from MOCA GA’s permanent collection and her own own private collection.

Artist Talk: Tuesday, May 29th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Click here to view all works of Susan Cofer’s in The MOCA GA Permanent Collection

Featured Image: Susan Cofer, The Compleat Jerry Cullum, 1999, Mixed Media, 21″ x 26″ x 11 3/4″, Gift of the artist, MOCA GA Permanent Collection