South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
PANDEMIC PORTRAITS
Artist honors essential workers in a big way
Saluting front line workers is the message Armory Art Center’s executive director hopes visitors to the upcoming exhibit will take away once “We’re all Wearing Masks Now” — a celebration of first responders — opens to the public on Saturday, Sept. 26.
It will be the West Palm Beach art center’s first show after being closed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“We just want to be a part of the community that salutes the work that has been done by the essential workers; we want to appreciate them,” said Tom Pearson, the center’s executive director.
The opening reception will take place outside from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25 and will feature light refreshments donated by Buccan. Attendance is limited. RSVP at bit.ly/32BmHlO.
The exhibit, which runs through Saturday, Oct. 3, will feature a collection of paintings by artist Mark Cohen, who also teaches and takes classes at the Armory.
When the virus first started, he began looking up articles in the New York Times and Washington Post and saw what was going on with doctors and nurses.
“They are literally the world’s most selfless people and every day they’re risking their lives,” he said.
He wanted the people in his paintings to be symbolic of what’s going on so he doesn’t use any names, Cohen said.
“I thought, ‘I have to start painting these people.’ I wanted to do more than just portraits. I looked for images of the virus and found several graphic ones and married those with people. I wanted to make the painting really big so people couldn’t miss them. I’m working on number 10,” he said.
Cohen, of West Palm Beach, started painting about 10 to 15 years ago after a career in advertising and marketing.
Although he has an undergraduate and graduate degree in fine arts, he never really painted before this, he said.
“I knew I needed help to be able to do this painting, so I found Armory
Art Center,” he said. “Armory is probably the best resource for artists from beginners to advance in South Florida. Anything you want in fine arts, they can pull it off.”
He’s been teaching printmaking at Armory for three years and the past six months he’s been teaching an online art history class there.
During a class Cohen was taking, Pearson noticed he was taking up one of the walls with his paintings and that’s when he knew his art would make a good exhibit, he said.
“He works with huge canvasses, and there were different people with masks on. He did about six or seven and I thought this would be good to honor the essential workers,” Pearson said.
Cohen likes to “paint things no one was painting.” He’s painted school shooters, the Holocaust and Black Lives Matter, to name a few.
“I wasn’t interested in palm trees and beach scenes. I was really making people angry and they’d ask, ‘Why were you doing that?’ I’d say, ‘I know why I am doing it. Why do you think I’m doing it?’”
He said he hopes people who see his exhibit take a moment to think about what they believe in, especially with Black Lives Matter, he said.
“I don’t think there’s justice for African Americans or other minorities until white people demand it…as a Jew, I have a responsibility to do what I can to make sure the Holocaust isn’t forgotten and not reinterpreted by people who don’t like Jews,” Cohen said.
He also wants to show his adult children in their 50s that even late in life, you can change, he said.
Cohen is currently working on putting together traveling shows and plans to exhibit a collection on the Holocaust and Black Lives Matter at Florida International University in Miami once it reopens, he said.
Admission is free and open to everyone, but the center, 811 Park Place, is asking attendees to sign up for a time slot at bit.ly/32BmHlO. Walk-ins are welcome.
The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sept. 26-27 and Sept. 29-Oct. 3.
Facial coverings and temperature checks are required at admission.
Visit armoryart.org.