Trevor Coopersmith
American (Born 1994)
Education
2015 Mira Costa Community College Oceanside - Associates in Art
2017 University of California Santa Barbara - Bachelors in Art
2019 University of London, Goldsmiths - Masters in Fine Art (Spring 2020 withdrawal)
2024 Otis College of Art & Design - Masters in Fine Art (Anticipated graduation 2024)
Artist statement
My interdisciplinary approach bridges gaps between the natural and non-natural through a practice of immersive world-building. I’m interested in perceiving the natural world like a bee on a flower, or as Aldous Huxley observed, “the nearer the more divine.”
By utilizing painting, ceramics, wood-working, found objects and installation, I seek to engage with the sublime. Highlighting microscopic beings such as insects, flora and fungi on reclaimed materials, I explore ephemerality while emphasizing an understanding for all sentient things.
Georgia O’Keeffe denies her work being reduced to relating to the body and eroticism. Alternatively, my work actively engages the human body through scale and can create new ways of seeing through spatial distortion. Researching and creating large scale interpretations of miniature creatures, like the Peacock Spider flaunting a psychedelic mating feather, can help us develop new ways of relating to the entanglement of the world. What can we gain by situating our lives in relation to another species? This perspective can redirect an objectifying gaze, rooted in disconnection and overconsumption, which often leads to unintended environmental consequences.
Bio
Trevor Coopersmith is the founder of the Urban Art Scholarship Foundation and holds a Bachelors in Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Trevor has exhibited with bG Gallery in Santa Monica, The Palos Verdes Art Center and Dorado 806 Projects in LA. Trevor was the 2021 artist in residence in College Station, Texas and a Port Austin, MI summer artist in residence in 2022. Coopersmith is a current MFA candidate at Otis College of Art & Design.
EXHIBITION
Solo Exhibitions
2016 “The Bigger Picture” - Glass Box Gallery - University of California Santa Barbara
2021 “Body X Landscape” - Arts Council Brazos Valley, TX
2022 “Sky Labyrinth” - Bee Barn (Artist in Residence Exhibition) - Port Austin, MI
Grants, Awards & Scholarships
2016 Made in LA Logo Contest Scholarship Recipient - Los Angeles Public Library
2020 Best of Show - Envision Arts Magazine Beyond Exhibition
2021 Illustrators of the Future Honorable Mention
2021 Arts Council of Brazos Valley Artist in Residence Grant
2022 Surfing Madonna Oceans Project Grant
Group Exhibitions
2016 “Free Radicals” - Glass Box Gallery - University of California Santa Barbara
2017 “New Work 2017” -Vista Civic Center -The City of Vista’s Public Art Commission
2019 “Great Outdoors” - La Bodega Gallery - San Diego, CA
2020 “The Spiritual Exercises I & II” - Arts Chaplaincy - University of Arts London, UK - Virtual Exhibition
“Methods of Negotiation” - Art Music Lit Space -San Francisco, CA - Virtual Exhibition
“Beyond” - Envision Arts - Virtual Exhibition
“Landscapes of the Mind” - First Floor Gallery - Santa Clarita, CA
2021 “Post-Industrialism” - Loosen Art, Millepiani - Rome, Italy
“Abandoned: Time and Place” - The Chateau Gallery - Louisville, KY - Virtual Exhibition
“Dreaming of Equ>lity” - Reynolds Gallery University of the Pacific- Stockton, CA - Virtual Exhibition
“STAND” - Art Fluent - Virtual Exhibition
“Emotions Embodied: Abstractions from the West Coast” - Art Scene West - Solana Beach, CA
“Rewrite Reality” - Independent Image & Art Space Chongqing, China - Virtual Exhibition
“Nude Affiliation and Portraiture” - Pepney Gallery - Cavan, Ireland - Virtual Exhibition
“Gray Area” - Treat Gallery - New York City, NY - Virtual Exhibition
“Verdant” - UNT CoLab, Envision Arts - Denton, TX
“Communitas III: Digital Communities" - Kunsthaus Steffisburg, Switzerland
2022 “Corpologie III ('Body'ologies III)” - OGA Gallery - Rome, Italy
“Stripped Down” - Vestige Concept Gallery - Pittsburgh, PA
“Mother Nature Survived It (And I Will Too)” - Helms Design Center (Inside Out Productions) - Culver City, CA
“Now Trending” - Palos Verdes Art Center - Palos Verdes, CA
“Taking it to the Next Degree” - Avenue 50 Studio & Gateway to Nature Center - Los Angeles, CA
2023 “4 Square” - Ashton Gallery - San Diego, CA
“Ocean-Earth-Air” - Poway Center for the Performing Arts, CA
“Within: Without - Windows to an Inclusive Future” - Arroyo Arts Collective - Debs Park, CA
“Spectrum Gestalt” - bG Gallery - Santa Monica, CA
Curatorial Experience
2022 “Transfigure” - bG Gallery - Santa Monica, CA - Virtual Exhibition
2022 “Pitch” - Galef Elevator - Otis College of Art & Design, CA
Publications/ Press
2016 Carlsbad Magazine March/April - “Art is in the Genes”
Catalyst Literary Arts Magazine - Isla Vista Edition
2017 Herstory Magazine - UCSB Womxn's Commission
The Current - University of California Santa Barbara
Matchbox Magazine - Eleventh Edition
2018 Catalyst Literary Arts Magazine - Winter Quarter
2019 The Coast Magazine Encinitas - “North County Artists Featured at Artwalk”
CBS 8 San Diego News Feature - Festival of the Arts North Park
The Vista Press - “City of Vista Relaunches ‘Vista In Bloom’ Program’”
2020 City of Los Angeles Dept. of Cultural Affairs - Latino Heritage Month Cultural Guide
2021 Original Magazine - “Hope”
Superpresent Magazine - Spring 2021 “What is the New Reality?”
Concrete Nature - “Out of Office”
WTAW Radio College Station - Arts Council Interview
Shanti Arts, Still Point Arts Quarterly - “Living on the Water”
KBTX/ CBS Interview - College Station Artist in Residence
2022 SD Voyager - SoCal Shoutout
Huron Daily Tribune - “Port Austin Artist in Residence coming back bigger than ever”
Flora Fiction Literary Magazine - “Summer”
Tint Journal - Fall 22
2023 Hyperallergic - Otis College Thesis Shows Make Art School Look Cool”
Residencies
2021 College Station - Arts Council of Brazos Valley, Texas
2022 Port Austin, Michigan
Public Projects
2015 Oceanside Museum of Art Kids Camp Art Lessons
2016 City of Isla Vista Utility Box and Little Free Library
2017 Boys and Girls Club Vista/ San Marcos CA - Charity Wings Public Art Lessons
2019 Vista in Bloom - City of Vista Utility Box Program
2021 Little Italy San Diego Artreach Guitar Project
Santa Clarita New Heights Artist Development Artist Advice Project
2022 La Quinta X-Park Project
2023 Arroyo Arts Collective - Within/Without: Windows to an Inclusive Future - Debs Park, Los Angeles, CA
Teaching Experience
Palos Verdes Art Center - Universal Abstraction class ages 5-7 - Winter 2022/2023
Teaching Assistant - Visiting Artist Lecture Series - Otis College Spring 2023
Commissions, Murals & Collections
University of California Santa Barbara Anthropology Department
Cal Coast Adventures, Santa Barbara CA
Waterworks Aquatics, Carlsbad CA
Live the Co, Los Angeles CA
U.S. Forest Servic