Elaine Albers Cohen

Elaine Albers Cohen has been involved with the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve since its beginning. Cohen graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art and Case Western Reserve University where she received her degree in art education. She studied enameling with K. Bates, ceramics with Toshiko Takeazu and finished an independent study in ceramics at Baldwin-Wallace Collage creating large sculptural vessels. After graduation Cohen worked in the Lorain City School district as a high school art teacher for eleven years. Today she works in her studio in Avon Lake, Ohio. Cohen mainly works in painting, collage, ceramics and copper enameling.

She describes her art: “Because of travel and the study of many primitive cultures, my works reflect a wide variety of symbols and designs that tell a story or set a mood,” Cohen explains. “The more basic symbols often seem to me to be modern and abstract, as well as ancient and mysterious in nature. I feel that it is my task to make these ancient symbols come alive and communicate through the use of color and relationships to the space around them. When I work with unrelated subject matter, such as figurative carvings, certain colors are dictated. But with ancient symbols, there is more freedom to create atmosphere and fantasy.”

Cohen has worked with many galleries and exhibited in numerous shows throughout Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York, including the Cola Bjel Gallery, Boston Mills Art Show and William Ris Gallery in New Jersey. She has received merit awards from the International Society of Experimental Artists and the North Coast Collage Society