Leilah Cohen at EV Gallery One Week Only

Oct 15

Reimagined, an exhibition of brilliant and engaging new works by East Village artist Leilah Cohen opened at EV Gallery, 621 E. 11th St., Oct. 15. and runs through Oct. 22.

The work is surprising mature, especially considering Cohen is but 13. She began drawing at age three and had her work used publicly for the first time at age four when one of her drawings found its way into a daycare graduation pamphlet. This is her second exhibit at EV Gallery.

Cohen’s inspirations are diverse, from Renaissance Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci and Dutch Baroque Period master Johannes Vermeer, to TV paint-at-home guru Bob Ross and modern-day anime.

The works include Cloudy Day, a self portrait of the young artist waiting alone in the rain for a bus. “I travel to and from school alone. Most people find being alone scary, but I like it much more than crowds of people,” she said.

The work, with its simplicity and bold colors, brings to mind the latter-day drawings of English painter, printmaker and photographer David Hockney.

Another, Candlelight, a portrait of a woman smoking a cigarette, conveys a slightly dark sense of cool and blasé isolation. “Kids at school smoke sometimes. My parents have already advised me to stay away from it but it’s cool in this painting,” Cohen said.

This piece relies on a vibrant color palette and captures the curvaceous contours of a Rubenesque subject, as frequently depicted by the 1960s underground comic genius Robert Crumb.