Contemporary Art at the Cohen Design Centers

Dec. 16, 2008 - PRLog -- Charles S. Cohen, president and owner of prestigious design centers including the Pacific Design Center (PDC) in West Hollywood, California, the Decorative Center Houston (DCH) Texas, the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Florida (DCOTA), and the Decoration & Design (D&D) Building in New York City has announced new arts programming at all the design centers led by independent curator and advisor, Helen Varola.

The Design Centers will become host to thematic contemporary art exhibitions, art fairs, and talks featuring recent contemporary art and will complement the Design Centers’ esteemed design event and social calendar.

Artists, independent curators, galleries and cultural institutions are invited to propose ideas for exhibitions, installations, workshops, performances and lectures on a regular basis. A Discourse & Design talk series focusing on design issues in public and private space, a touring Multiples Art Fair, a 17-floor staircase art installation by Pratt Institute art students at the D&D Building and other site-specific projects including pop-interventions are currently being planned.

The Design Centers are to-the-trade world-renowned campuses that showcase extraordinary design showrooms with restaurants and designers’ lounges. They serve all major international design markets, including Europe, Asia, the Pacific Rim and Latin America through their four locations on the East and West Coasts as well as the Gulf Coasts of Texas and Southern Florida.

Since 1985, PDC has hosted an onsite extension of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), where Mr. Cohen now serves as a museum trustee. MOCA has featured new work by emerging and established artists in architecture, design, photography and contemporary art.

Helen Varola has worked on projects with artists David Goldblatt, Keith Tyson, Christian Jankowski, Vik Muniz, Rikrit Tiravanija and Turner Prize recipient, Mark Wallnger, and has published articles and curated exhibitions on contemporary art at venues such as the Site Gallery, Sheffield and the World Economic Forum in Davos. She has advised top 200 art collectors and major corporations and worked at New York galleries Paula Cooper and Peter Blum. Varola earned her Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Chicago and lives in New York and Italy with her husband, a magician. She is the daughter of a Greek Egyptian designer for the late King Farouk of Egypt.

For further information, please contact Helen Varola at mycurator@earthlink.net or 917-714-1594. www.cohendesigncenters.com.