Sorel Cohen

Sorel Cohen is a Canadian photographer and visual artist currently living and working in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She was represented by Donald Browne Gallery in Montreal until the gallery closed its doors in 2016.

Sorel Cohen has been a member of various arts councils throughout her career. Most notably the Canada Council for the Arts, from 1990-1997. Cohen was also Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec in 1992. From 1979-1989 Cohen was a member of the Board of Directors for the Galerie Optica in Montreal. Cohen has been a guest lecturer at various Canadian Universities.

Sorel Cohen was awarded the prestigious Duke and Duchess of York Photography Prize, by the Canada Council in 1988.

In 1977, Cohen begins a series of works (color photographs, video, cyanotypes) based on the action of making a bed. Among these, the series of photographs Le rite matinal shows the artist performing this action repeatedly in front of the camera with an impression of movement obtained by a slow shutter speed and a long exposure time. By performing this banal action in front of the camera, the artist links women's domestic work with their artistic work, often neglected in art history.

Sorel Cohen has worked extensively with portraiture, both behind and in front of the camera. The majority of her work has a focus on both autobiographical works as well as feminist works. In the 1970s, Cohen began experimenting by combining photography with performance art, which was a relatively new idea at the time and soon became known for this. Cohen often combines the use of this performance art with a slow shutter speed, creating a blurred aesthetic. By displaying these photographs in a series, the viewer feels a sense of time passing through them. Cohen draws inspiration from all forms of art, from painting to sculpture, to performance in her photographic work. Although Cohen's work comes from personal experience, she gives her photographs a quality that allows for interpretation, giving them an almost universal meaning. Cohen has produced an extensive collection of work that comes from a perspective of psychoanalysis.

Sorel Cohen was born in 1936, in Montreal, Quebec, to parents of Ukrainian and Polish descent. Cohen pursued post-secondary education in Montreal, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University in 1974, as well as a Masters of Fine Arts in 1979. Her Masters thesis examined feminist influences on art in the 1970s, and her work has continued to be shaped by her feminist values.

With the series An Extended and Continuous Metaphor, Cohen abandons the sequential or grid form in favor of hierarchically organized polyptychs, some reminiscent of Flemish altarpieces. The photographs show the artist simultaneously performing the roles of artist, model, and viewer through multiple exposures in an all-black space. This non-space refers to an idealized conception of the artist's studio: to that effect, the title of the series alludes to the painting The Painter's Studio: A real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life by Gustave Courbet (1855).