ARTIST ALEX COHEN

PAINTING BACK TO LIFE AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX COHEN

By Alexa Modugno

There is a distinctive dream-like quality that makes Alex Cohen’s artwork stand out amongst the rest. Having zero experience as an artist whatsoever up until after college, he began using art as a form of therapy, to tap into his emotions and feel wholesome while producing something that was prolific and eyecatching. Alex - and others - soon discovered that he had a knack for visual art and what began as therapy, not only turned into a passion but also a professional career. His mind conjures eccentric idiosyncratic scenes that are unmistakably Alex Cohen.

With a flawless technique, you would never guess that Alex taught himself how to paint. Once he was able to tap into his true creativity, he was enthusiastically encouraged as his potential was realized and he continued to create with his tremendous growing talent. While at the start of his career his audience was limited, after some viral Instagram posts his art took off and in 2021 he was asked to do a live painting at an event at Art Basel 2021.

Alex incorporates his personal experiences, growing up under immense pressure to thrive academically in a severe illiberal and demanding environment. He struggled with his mental health throughout childhood and adolescence, seriously hindering his ability to succeed in his studies. Once finally able to find his creative voice, art was the missing puzzle piece that resonated within Alex, completing his search for a life purpose. He believes that to create, is to let go of fears and past negative experiences, and Alex will continue to evolve, as he turns more and more heads.

Recently, Alex took part in a mural project in Phoenix, AZ where he cleverly and fantastically illustrated childhood dreams and perseverance. Alex chose the path of the artist while his parents anxiously insisted that a “traditional” job would be more lucrative. However, once he found his artistic voice, Alex became sure that he chose the right path and he has become an inspiration to everyone who ever doubted themselves or to anyone who struggled to simply imagine their future.

You became an artist without going to art school. How did you teach yourself? My first artistic love was filmmaking, and I took some courses in a while during my undergraduate studies. I saw how quickly it polluted my ideas and made me fall a little more and more out of love with the art form after each class. I started painting for the first time in Art Therapy in rehab and fell in love with it instantly. The vibrations from the brush were

the closest feeling I could get to taking drugs without actually taking them. I knew after my experience with film classes, I needed to protect the painting with all my heart from anything that could hurt it. In all honesty, I learned how to paint by doing it a lot and making a lot of mistakes. Looking at artists I admire, trying to emulate, making more mistakes, and then learning from those experiences.

How would you classify your “style”? Stylistically, I have no idea what category I fall under. However, I do know that what I enjoy doing the most is juxtaposing street art and “fine art”, with the goal in mind to show viewers and myself that there are no such things as “higher art” forms. Any style can achieve my artistic goals and create an emotional response from viewers, which is all that I care about 88 Metropolitan Magazine | metmagny.com at the end of the day. Did the painting make you feel or think about something? If it did either, then it has accomplished its goal. I love experiencing creating in different styles because it teleports me into different and oftentimes new worlds.

What inspires you to create? I don’t paint because I want to, I paint because I have to. If I don’t paint, to put it simply, I lose my mind.

Do you think anyone can be an artist and tell me why you like being an artist. It depends on what you think good art is. Some people classify good art as what most closely resembles a still photograph, whereas others care about what they are actually looking at, and what can’t already be done by a camera. I think anyone can make “interesting” art and that it’s just a matter of unleashing your mind. OCD is the common enemy that prevents most people from ever pursuing art and or feeling good about their creations. Once you can let go of perfectionism and accept that you are going to make mistakes, you open yourself up to a completely new world of artistic opportunity.

Tell me a little about your issues with substance abuse and mental health and how it relates to your art. It relates to all of my art, if I hadn’t had these issues in the first place, I probably wouldn’t have ever felt “crazy” enough to pick up a paintbrush and try to make something out of it. Life is really about contrasts and dichotomies, what activities, foods, drugs, etc make you feel the most different from what you are already experiencing. When I first tried to get sober in 2018, I knew I needed to find an activity that got me from point A to point B without further jeopardizing my mental health - which was already in a fragile state - but what activity could have the same impact of drugs? Not just take me away from the pain and discomfort, but help me learn how to better live with that discomfort. Painting is a practice in learning how to screw up, not give up, and then trying to make that screw up into something beautiful. I find this relates to life in many ways.

What was your childhood like and do you think if you were an artist it’d enhance it? Growing up, playing sports, and trying to be cool were always the most important things to me. I secretly always loved absorbing art in all of its forms, however, I was too scared of rejection to ever attempt it myself. I wish I just didn’t give a f*ck about what other people thought and was just able to be myself, but we all know that’s the hardest thing in the world to do when you’re growing up.

What’s one piece of advice you have for your younger self? Don’t listen to your parents.