Brandeis Magazine

Emerging artist Jessica Riva Cooper will populate the Kniznick Gallery at the Woman’s Studies Research Center this spring with mystical figures from Yiddish folklore. As the third annual Hadassah-Brandeis Institute artist-in-residence, Cooper will execute an original, site-specific drawing and sculpture installation that reinterprets through a feminist lens the stories of the golem (a figure said to do a person’s bidding without question) and the dybbuk 
(a mystical spirit). From April 4–14, visitors will be able to see the installation 
in progress and interact with the artist; an opening reception is scheduled for April 14, and the show will remain on view until May 20. A Toronto native, Cooper holds a B.F.A. in ceramics from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and an M.F.A. in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she has taught wheel-thrown pottery and ceramic sculpture courses. She has exhibited her work and has served as a visiting artist in both the United States and Canada. For more information, visit www.brandeis.edu/wsrc/arts/.