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Gateway to Ybor City Historic District |
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HISTORY
Originated
in 1984, Brad Cooper Gallery specializes in contemporary art by established,
mid-career and emerging artists from the U.S. and abroad. Our original
goal, still true today, was to identify and exhibit under valued artists,
enhance their careers and collaborate to build their market. Many artists
who began with the gallery, were given their first solo shows and continue
to exhibit. In 1990, in need of additional space, we relocated from the
south Tampa to a larger facility in Tampa’s Historic District,
Ybor City. |
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Acknowledgements
“The
Brad
Cooper
Gallery
is a vital part of the
Florida
and
Southeastern United States
art community. It has been an important resource for anyone who wants to
know what is happening not only in
Tampa
and
Florida
but also the remainder of the country. His exhibitions always introduce me
to new and significant artists. Brad and Elizabeth are wonderful
individuals! It has always been a great pleasure to talk and work with
Brad.”
Mark
Ormond
Art Historian, Independent Curator and Writer
“Bravo! Brava! For 20 yrs. of guts, sacrifice and endurance for the sake
of Art & artists in
Tampa! “
Anna Brennen
STAGEWORKS Founder & Producing Director
”For
a city where art galleries typically open with fanfare and promise and then
quietly close their doors,
Brad Cooper
Gallery's twentieth anniversary marks one of Tampa's rare cultural triumphs.
For two decades the gallery has sustained a stable of unique visual artists
bridging local, national and international origins, and a will to integrate
rich cultural dialogue into the public sector.
Brad Cooper
Gallery is one of Tampa's premiere art destinations and for an unwavering
persistence and steadfast refusal to dilute art with commercial trendiness,
we are all grateful.”
Adrienne Golub
Art Critic
”Professional,
pragmatic and predictable...Brad
Cooper
persevered! Congratulations, Brad.”
Art Keeble
Arts Council of Hillsborough County
“I have been visiting Tampa on a regular basis for over 20 years mainly to
see my folks who have retired there. I always check out the art scene where
ever I travel. Over the years one of my favorite things to do while in
Tampa has been to visit Ybor City. I have always made a special point of
stopping by the Brad Cooper Gallery which was and still is the most
interesting and challenging gallery in the Tampa area. Having spent most of
my adult life in the art world as an artist, writer, curator and art
educator, I am well aware of quality work when I see it. Brad's gallery has
always lived up to my expectations with consistently excellent exhibitions.
No palm trees or flamingos here, only exciting work from the best figurative
painting to the best in current abstraction. I salute Brad and Elizabeth
for their vision and integrity and their determination to bring to the Tampa
audience the most important art being made today. “
Corey Postiglione
Artist, Writer, Curator and Art Educator at Columbia College,
Chicago
”Tampa has been a difficult art market and for a fine art gallery to survive
here for 20 years is an amazing and noble accomplishment. Brad and Elizabeth
have created a cultural treasure for the entire west coast of Florida. “
Jeff Whipple
Artist
“Thank you, Brad Cooper, for twenty years of success in displaying
exceptional fine art for Tampa's residents and visitors to enjoy. Thank you
for keeping art and artists visible in Ybor City through all the ups and
downs.”
Wendy
Ceccherelli
Tampa Director of Arts and Cultural Affairs
”The Brad Cooper Gallery, against all odds, has made an important
contribution to serious artists, as well as the Tampa Bay Community through
its relentless, non-compromising exhibition schedule and educational
programs during the past twenty years. My heart felt congratulations to
Elizabeth and Brad, they are colleagues that have made a difference.”
Ken Rollins
Executive Director, Gulf Coast Museum of Art
“Twenty years ago, many of us envisioned a thriving arts community in a
revitalized Ybor City. Brad did more than think about it -- he went to work
creating a great gallery. Two decades later, Brad and Elizabeth remain a
beacon for the arts on 7th Ave.”
Paul Wilborn
Creative Industries Manager
City of Tampa Department of Arts and Cultural Affairs
“Having moved to the area just over 4 years ago from Boston, MA, my wife and
I were desperately in need of a culture fix!
Even before we looked for a permanent residence -- which turned out to be
St. Petersburg (we love the Russian connection) -- we checked out all the
museum, college & university collections, and, of course, the gallery scene
within a fifty plus mile radius.
Myself being a cultural historian, by trade, and a former professor (Chair
of the BU Classical Studies Department),-- who has lectured at museums in
the US and abroad, and having led several Boston University tours to Greek
archeology sites and all the major cultural collections there along with my
wife Juliana, an architect and artist herself: -- LIVING IN A CITY MEANS
LIVING WITH ART, artists, and other kindred "intelligentsia" which, one comes
to expect, "must" inhabit such urban space!
So, after touring this end of Florida, frankly, we had mixed feelings --
until we came across the Brad Cooper Gallery in Ybor City! Wow! Here was a
gallery on par with what we were used to back on the East Coast. Vibrant,
contemporary art produced by smart, cutting edge, even visionary artists!
As we excitedly strolled the gallery discussing the show at the time (Tanya
Softic -- a dark, deep, expressive young painter of Bosnian origin), Brad
Cooper, with equal enthusiasm, joined in our conversation. It was a surprise
and a delight to discover that this fellow enthusiast was the gallery owner
himself!
More delightful still was to find a thoroughly professional art dealer
conversant with the how-what-why-and-where of the contemporary art world
right here in Tampa!
Not only that, but a aesthetic risk taker: not just confined to his own
gallery walls, or the local tourist/interior decorator trade, Brad
overflows, in his quiet unassuming manner, with real insight into what art
is and does to the blood stream of a "metropolis" worthy of the term:
clearly eschewing the oh-so-typical corporate trade culture that plagues big
city living everywhere!
Not to insult anyone's taste -- but a dealer WITH "taste", -- AND sensibility:
a vital combination if our local "scene" is not to be over-run with (excuse
the phrase) "chotchka"! Well, need I say more? Come and "taste" the wares!
Congratulations for helping all of us to survive these last 20 years! "Chronia
Polla, kai tou Chronou!" -- As the Greeks say: Many Years! to Brad and
Elizabeth Cooper and the Brad Cooper Gallery in Ybor City!”
Steve Salamone,
Ph.D.
Director of Studies to The C.G. Jung Society of Tampa Bay
Lecturer on Cultural History at the Brad Cooper Gallery
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