Jeff Cowen


Jeff Cowen is an American art photographer. He is known for painterly silver gelatin photo murals and photo collages. Various chemical procedures, mark-making, brushwork, and post darkroom mixed media finishing techniques are often contained in his artworks.

Early life and education

Jeff Cowen was a New York University Honours Scholar in East Asian Studies. He also studied at Waseda University in Tokyo. His senior year he took a photography class with Elaine Mayes at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. During this class he made photographs of prostitution in the Meatpacking District in New York City. This work was acquired by the New-York Historical Society for their permanent collection.

Career

After graduating he worked as an assistant for master American photographers Larry Clark from 1988 to 1990, and Ralph Gibson from 1990 to 1992. Clark was the assistant of W. Eugene Smith and Gibson was the assistant of Dorothea Lange.
At age 23, Cowen's images of the Romanian Revolution appeared in: The Guardian, Tel Aviv Post, Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun.
Cowen studied drawing and anatomy at the Art Students League of New York and the New York Studio School.
In 2001, he moved to Paris, France. In 2005, his first monograph was published by Paris Musées. That monograph contains his early New York work and his painterly Mural collages of nudes. In 2007, Cowen collaborated with filmmaker and writer Andre Labarthe founder of the Cahiers du cinéma for his exhibition called The Lotus Eaters.
In 2007, Cowen located his studio in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin for 16 years, before he returned to New York City in 2023. From 2025, Jeff Cowen lives and works in France.
He was awarded the Thomas Cooke Award for Photography. In 2021, Jeff Cowen was nominated and awarded the Pollock Krasner Grant for Fine Art Still Photography.
Jeff Cowen's works are included in numerous private and public collections all over the world. In 2024, his project "Provence Works" is presented in a joint exhibition by the Huis Marseille Museum for Photography and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. His works have been shown in Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm, Sweden; Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Germany; DZ Bank Art Collection Frankfurt, Germany; Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany; Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam, Netherland; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia; among others.

Personal life

Cowen taught photography to underprivileged, inner-city kids at LEAP between 1990 and 1994. Cowen discovered and mentored the young and brilliant illegal immigrant Dan-el Padilla and helped him earn a scholarship to Collegiate School in New York City. Padilla later earned a scholarship at Princeton University where he graduated with the highest distinction and was offered full scholarship at Oxford University. Due to Padilla's illegal immigrant status, Padilla and Cowen were both featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal that highlighted some of the absurdity and rigidity of U.S. immigration laws. Dan-el Padilla is currently an associate professor of classics at Princeton University.

Selected exhibitions

  • 2024: Provence Works, Huis Marseille – Museum voor Fotografie, and Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  • 2024: Berlin Works, Fotografiska Stockholm
  • 2024: Seance: Jeff Cowen’s Work in Dialogue with Hans Bellmer, Joseph Beuys, Claude Cahun, Sigmar Polke, and others. HOUSE, Berlin
  • 2024: Jeff Cowen, Werner Knaupp, fotodiskurs, Augsburg
  • 2023: Women’s Work, New York Historical Society Museum, New York
  • 2021: Jeff Cowen. Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow
  • 2020: The Lives and Loves of Images. Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen
  • 2019: 64 Art Works. Art Collection of The New School, New York
  • 2019: Jeff Cowen. Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt
  • 2019: Jeff Cowen 30 Works. curated by Eric Schlosser, Museum of Modern Art, Tbilisi
  • 2018: Recent Work. Michael Werner Kunsthandel, Köln
  • 2018: Picture Believer. The Glen Bjørnholt Collection, Oslo
  • 2018: Elèctric i llunyà. Collection olorVisual, Barcelona
  • 2017: Jeff Cowen Photoworks 2002 – 2015. Huis Marseille, Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam
  • 2016: Jeff Cowen Photoworks 2002 – 2015. Ludwig Museum, Koblenz
  • 2016: Jeff Cowen Sculpture Photographs. Michael Werner Kunsthandel, Köln
  • 2016: Jeff Cowen Capturing Eclipse. Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt
  • 2016: Back To The Future Of Photography. DZ Art Collection, Frankfurt
  • 2016: Fotografies I Dibuixos. Gallery A34, Barcelona
  • 2015: Jeff Cowen Capturing Eclipse. Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven
  • 2015: Jeff Cowen. Willas Contemporary, Oslo
  • 2015: Marguerite. Galerie Seine 51, Paris
  • 2014: Jeff Cowen, Yamamoto Masao, Arno Rafael Minkkinen. Blomqvist Kunsthandel, Oslo
  • 2014: Hängengeblieben – 25 Jahre Kunstverein Recklinghausen. Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
  • 2014: The Marseillaise / fifteen years of collecting. Huis Marseille – Museum voor Fotografie, Amsterdam
  • 2014: Landscapes. Kunstverein Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen
  • 2014: Jeff Cowen. VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin
  • 2014: PHOTOGRAPHY. Michael Werner Kunsthandel, Köln
  • 2014: Jeff Cowen. Paris Photo 2013, Michael Werner Kunsthandel, Grand Palais, Paris
  • 2014: Jeff Cowen and Yamamoto Masao. Pug Gallery, Norwegen
  • 2012: The Cross. Nuova Galleria Morone, Mailand
  • 2012: Jeff Cowen. Photographic works. Michael Werner Kunsthandel, Köln
  • 2011: Jeff Cowen. Gallery Seine 51, Paris
  • 2011: Insight. Art Moscow special project, Moskau
  • 2011: Jeff Cowen. Urs Albrecht, Basel
  • 2010: Scarab. Bernd Klüser, München
  • 2009: Jeff Cowen. Galerie Seine 51 Paris et Galerie Seine 51 Miami
  • 2008: Jeff Cowen. Galerie A34, Barcelona
  • 2008: White. Galerie Seine 51, Paris
  • 2008: Photo murals. Galerie Bernd Klüser, München
  • 2006: The Lotus-Eaters. Galerie Seine 51, Paris
  • 2006: Fotografies. A/34 Gallery, Barcelona
  • 2006: Premières rencontres photographiques. Galerie d’Art de Créteil, Créteil
  • 2005: L’art et la guerre. La Filature, Mulhouse
  • 2004: 1987-2004 work. Galerie Seine 51, Paris
  • 2003: Shoot and Die. Galerie Seine 51, Paris
  • 2001: The Scroll Paintings. The Point Gallery, New York
  • 2001: Ming Murals. Chaos Night Club, New York
  • 2000: China Studies, Luise Gallery, New York
  • 1999: Shoot and Die. Vitrinen Calvin Klein, Bergdorf Goodman, New York
  • 1994: South Bronx, Collegiate School, New York
  • 1993: Jeff Cowen. West 14th Street at The Space, New York, curated by Chris D’Amelio