About
Nicole Cooper confronts the Climate Crisis through her work. Active in the solar energy industry and climate organizations, she's experienced how emotions can both motivate and paralyze action. Her figurative oil paintings use vibrant colors, energetic brushwork, and the human form to explore humanity as an interwoven, evolving force. Through her work she investigates the complex feelings surrounding climate change to create pathways toward connection, understanding, and action.
Nicole Cooper (American, 1983) is a New York-based artist whose work investigates the complex emotions surrounding climate change to create pathways toward connection and action. Cooper holds a BFA from Kansas City Art Institute, has completed the Yale Norfolk School of Art Summer Residency with Yale University, and is currently a participant in Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center Residency program.
Cooper’s work was a winner of the Fall 2025 Homiens Art Prize and People’s Choice Award at the 2025 Creative Climate Awards. In 2026, Chelsea News featured her in "Artist Nicole Cooper’s Work Offers New Ways to Think About Climate." Her art and interview were featured in USA Today's 2023 article, "All talk and, yes, action. Could conversations about climate change be a solution?"
A trained Climate Café facilitator and curator with Climate Imaginarium (NYC), Cooper is also a New York Artists Circle member. Her work is held in private collections in the U.S. and in Italy.
Recent solo exhibitions include “The Mothers in Me Will Meet You There” at Centerpoint Gallery (NYC), "Pivotal” at Fontbonne University Gallery (MO), and "Interwoven" at the Schmidt Art Center (IL). She’s shown in group exhibitions in NY venues Field Projects, Hudson Guild Gallery, and Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, and Missouri venues Duane Reed Gallery, COCA Millstone Gallery, and Art St. Louis.
