Rachel Leah Cohn

These paintings honor the two sisters, Leah and Rachel. While often portrayed as rivals, I thought about how these women were bound together in all their roles — as sisters, wives, and mothers and their internal struggles and disappointments within these identities. Each desires something the other has and struggles with a lack of love differently. The transparency of the paintings evokes stained glass windows, which have historically shared religious stories. In my work, I am particularly interested in how light and air influence the images, shifting scale, blending and softening, and animating through movement.

“Leah” was inspired by a poem by Yakov Azriel called “From Me, Leah to You, Rachel My Sister,” which resonated on the role of family dynamics and the boundaries between people. In letter form, Leah describes her interior life to her sister. Where she feels that Rachel sees her as an immovable rock, she sees herself as both mist and lava, which are elemental, active, and volatile.

“Rachel” is depicted weeping at night, hoping to be blessed with children. The mystical mandrakes that she traded from her sister hang over her. I represented her through water and plants to show the contrast and complement her sister. They are raw and vulnerable women who must rely on one another.   

About Rachel

Rachel Leah Cohn is an interdisciplinary artist working with painting, sculpture, video, and performance. She received her MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University (2013) and her BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2005). Rachel values experimentation, collaboration and trying to find new ways to describe the world around her. Recent projects have included an attempt to study the inner life of oysters, building a dream sauna and the reenactments of memories for further investigation. Lately her research has been focused on Jewish mysticism and protective magic.

Rachel exhibits her work nationally and internationally, including recent exhibitions at ACRE Gallery (Chicago, IL), Satellite Art Fair (Miami, FL), Terrain Biennial (Springfield, IL), Massey University (New Zealand), Qatar Museums (Qatar), the Istanbul Design Biennial (Türkiye and Aterlierhaus Salzamt (Austria).  She has attended many international artist residency programs, recently including Vermont Studio Center (VT), Signal Culture (NY), Otis College of Art and Design (CA) and the Fire Station (Qatar). She holds a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, an MFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently Foundations Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Art for the School of Art at Ball State University in Muncie, IN.