Kim Cooper — Contemporary Pop and Portrait Painter

Kim Cooper is a modern pop artist based in Washington, D.C., recognized for her vivid, textile-inspired portraiture that merges bold color, graphic clarity, and contemporary storytelling. With a professional background in textile and surface design, Cooper brings a unique visual language to her paintings, transforming the gridded patterns, stripes, and structural rhythms of fabric into expressive faces and figures that feel both familiar and abstract.

Cooper’s portraits often begin with people she encounters in her local community or figures recalled from childhood memories. As she paints, she distills their features into stylized forms, overlaying textile motifs that obscure, reveal, or entirely reinvent each face. The resulting compositions invite viewers to look twice – first to appreciate the striking color and geometry, then to uncover the quiet emotional cues embedded beneath the patterns.

Alongside her portraiture, Cooper creates pop-influenced works inspired by her love of iconic film and music figures. These compositions channel the vibrancy of pop culture through saturated palettes, lively character studies, and a modern reinterpretation of classic Pop Art aesthetics. Across both bodies of work, Cooper’s paintings embrace dimensionality, personality, and a playful interplay between realism and abstraction.

Cooper has exhibited nationally and internationally, showcasing her work in solo and group exhibitions across the United States, as well as at art fairs in Madrid and Monte Carlo with the Van Gogh Gallery. Her practice continues to gain recognition for its inventive merging of design, nostalgia, and contemporary pop sensibility.

Explore Kim Cooper at DTR Modern Galleries

DTR Modern Galleries proudly represents Washington, D.C.–based artist Kim Cooper, highlighting her bold and distinctive portraiture within the gallery’s contemporary program. Cooper exhibited as part of a 2025 group show at the D.C. location, and her work is available across DTR Modern’s four galleries in Boston, New York, Palm Beach, and Washington, D.C., where her vibrant pop-infused paintings continue to captivate collectors.