George Cohen is an Israeli-German painter and installation artist, recognized for his artworks that combine two cultural realms which have rarely been intermeshed this closely before – modern art, cultural history and digital image production with new media and computer technology.

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Cohen painted his first digital border in 1996, simulating the 8bit look of the first computerized windows. The pixels are always visible in Cohen's works, sometimes emphasized, sometimes hardly recognizable. For the artist, the pixels are not a metaphorical figure but an acting unit as well as a sign of a real interaction between art and technology.

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Mass culture has always been subject to imitation and consideration in Cohen's work, including icons of the post-digital age as cyber-culture has become increasingly ubiquitous. Many of his motifs originate from the visual agenda of the last hundred years. He invokes famous icons of modern art such as Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square or Piet Mondrian’s reduced geometric paintings and transfers them into a new aesthetic.

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In 1999, Cohen painted his version of Andy Warhol’s take on the iconic Renaissance Da Vinci original – his silk screened Mona Lisa, surrounded by a browser box, became the basis for an ongoing, travelling installation. George Cohen has translated Leonardo’s beauty with the help of the computer and digital media technology into a visual language that fits our times, and opened up new levels of interpretation.

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Cohen’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Moscow’s Museum of Modern Art, and the 2005 Venice Biennale. The artist lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

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MUSEUMS AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Art Collection Rockefeller University, New York, USA Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany Markisches Museum, Witten, Germany Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany Museum Ludwig, Koblenz, Germany Museum Ritter, Sammlung Marli Hoppe-Ritter, Waldenbuch, Germany State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Neues Museum, Weserburg, Bremen, Museum of Cultural History, Osnabruck, Jewish Museum, Westfalen, Musée de La Poste, Paris

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PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Bolschoj-Theater-Museum, Moscow

Museum Ludwig in State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Museum of Modern Art, Moscow

Foundation of Ministry of Culture, Moscow

MIET ()Moscow Technical University), Zelenograd

Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Germany

Museum Ludwig, Koblenz; Germany

Markisches Museum, Witten; Germany

Judisches Museum Westfalen, Dorsten; Germany

Museum RiOppe-Ritter, Waldenbuch/ Stuttgart; Germany

Sammlung des Bundeslandes Hessen, Germany

Sammlung des Bundesministeriums fur Arbeit, Berlin; Germany

DaimlerBenz Collection, Stuttgart; Germany

Nord LB Collection, Braunschweig, Germany

Collection KfW Bank, Frankfurt /Main, Germany

Collection Solomon Oppenheim Bank, Cologne, Germany

Collection Deutsche Sparkassen Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany

Collection Ernst & Jung, Stuttgart; Germany

Collection of the community Synagogue, Cologne; Germany

Collection of the Jewish Center for Culture and Art, Cologne, Germany

Collection La Reserve, Geneva, Switzerland

Stella Art Fondation, Moscow

“Contemporary City”, Fondation, Moscow

Art Collection Rockfeller University, New York, USA

Art Collection of the Fondation of the Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy