Dave Cooper is a self-taught Canadian artist born in Nova Scotia in 1967, known for his versatile and acclaimed work in comics, oil painting, and animation. He began his career in the 1990s as an underground cartoonist, gaining a cult following for works like Suckle and the award-winning series Weasel. Around the turn of the century, Cooper shifted his primary focus to fine art oil painting, developing a distinct style characterized by "fleshy, cartoonish female figures and gelatinous landscapes" that explore themes of hedonism and body image. He has since exhibited his paintings in major cities worldwide and attracted a celebrity following that includes figures like David Cronenberg and Guillermo del Toro.
In addition to his fine art and comics, Cooper has had a successful career in animation as a designer, producer, and creator. His work in this field includes co-creating the Nickelodeon series Pig Goat Banana Cricket and creating Teletoon's The Bagel and Becky Show. His adult animated short film, The Absence of Eddy Table (2016), received several international awards. The artist is known for a "psychedelic," unsettling aesthetic that intentionally blends extreme contrasts, merging elements that are "cute and horrifying, innocent and lurid" across his various creative media. A comprehensive monograph of his work, Pillowy: The Art of Dave Cooper, was published in 2019, covering his entire artistic output from early cartoons to his most recent paintings and animations.
Dave Cooper
