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T he first time I ever visited Mobilia Gallery, located

in a quiet, historic neighborhood in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, I was astonished to see that the front

window display was full of toast. Gallery owners (and sisters)

JoAnne and Libby Cooper were showing an installation by

artists John McQueen and Margo Mensing that recreated the

famous wave by the Japanese artist Hokusai—made entirely

out of toast.

“The toast! We had more comments on that show than

on any other show,” laughs JoAnne. “It was John McQueen

and Margo Mensing’s idea. They wanted to do an installation

called Comestibles that had to do with food. So John and

Margo were thinking of Hokusai’s wave, the wonderful

woodblock print that everybody knows, and they called the

installation A Sea of Toast. They actually took the toast out

of the toaster and wrapped it around a bottle so that it curved.

They must have had a heck of a time! A sea of toast—that was

what they wanted to do and we went along with it.”

This willingness to take chances, trust the artist’s vision,

think “out of the box” and present art that is fresh, spirited

and technically superb has been a hallmark of Mobilia’s

attitude toward art for over thirty years. The Coopers are

passionate ambassadors for contemporary art and their spark

and enthusiasm animate the gallery and charm artists and

clients alike. They curate exhibits of decorative arts, sculpture,

paintings, and studio jewelry; installations, supported by

lectures and symposia that are open to the community; and

catalogues that educate the public about the arts and the

creative process. Mobilia’s past and current roster of artists

includes some of the most influential and celebrated names in

contemporary art: Svetozar Radakovich, Merry Renk, Byron

Wilson, Earl Pardon, Tod Pardon, Ramona Solberg, Gerda

Flockinger, Wendy Ramshaw, Kevin Coates, Linda Threadgill,

Margot Di Cono, Alexandra Watkins, Nancy Michel, Marilyn

da Silva, Jack da Silva, Mary Lee Hu, Hanne Behrens, Arline

Fisch, Georg Dobler, Yuka Saito, Joe Wood, Leila Shenkin,

Joyce Scott, Mariko Kusumoto, Etsuko Sonobe, Blanka

Sperkova, Jennifer Trask, Christina Smith, Heather White,

Cynthia Eid, Sarah Perkins, Richard Mawdsley, Flora Book,

and many others. They work closely with numerous collectors

including Daphne Farago, and have been delighted to see

their artists’ work in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the

Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Metropolitan

Museum of Art, and The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian

American Art Museum.

“My favorite thing of all is placing an artist’s work in

a museum so that it can be appreciated throughout time and

history,” says JoAnne.“I think that would be every artist’s dream.

Elizabeth Frankl

MOBILIA

A SHOWCASE FORCOMPELLING ART

Established in 1978, Mobilia Gallery is knownfor presenting art that is fresh, spirited andtechnically superb. Codirectors and passionateambassadors JoAnne and Libby Cooper’senthusiasm for their mission animates thegallery and charms artists and clients alike.

GALLERY

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And in terms of the collectors we deal with, it’s a great pleasure

to be able to help build up a collection for a client and to

know that eventually it will go to a museum. That’s the best.”

Mobilia actually started out in 1978 as a pushcart in

Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Libby was working

as a buyer for children’s toys and clothing at Design Research

in Cambridge, a store that sold Marimekko fabrics, clothing

and creatively-designed functional and decorative objects.

“When I worked there I could buy whatever I wanted so I had

a tremendous amount of freedom. It was like having your

own miniature store. And as long as it did well, it was fine,

and it did do well,” says Libby. When she left the company she

decided to start her own business.

“I wanted to do something that wasn’t a big investment.

They had just opened Faneuil Hall Marketplace and I decided

to open a pushcart and sell things that were made by artists

that I had shown at Design Research. I had the cart for about

a year and then a small spot became available on Huron

Avenue in Cambridge, right around the corner from where

I was living, and I just decided to rent it. That’s how it

happened, and we’ve just been evolving ever since. The

business has just been a series of continuous changes.” She

named her business Mobilia because many of the artists she

took with her, when she started the pushcart, made mobiles.

JoAnne joined her sister a few years later after studying

painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

and the California College of Arts and Crafts, and living in New

Orleans. She counts among her adventures st ints as

a professional face painter for Mardi Gras, and for a television

show in Las Vegas featuring “The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.”

JoAnne laughs, “I mean, I wasn’t into wrestling, but I’d be told

what character the wrestler was playing and I’d do the make 43O

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9Clockwise from top left: KEVIN COATES, Fragonard’sL’Amour Volé Brooch of twenty karat gold, pink/greenbaroque pear l, pink/green mother-of-pearl, si lver,eighteen karat white gold pin. Photograph by ClarissaBruce. MARY LEE HU, Choker 90 of eighteen karat andtwenty-two karat gold. Photograph by Cindy Brennan.CYNTHIA EID, necklace of o xidized silver, twenty-twokarat gold. Photograph by artist.

Opposite page, left: JoAnne Cooper, left, and LibbyCooper, right. Both sisters wear Linda MacNeil necklaces.Photograph by John Car lano. Image courtesy of Unitedin Beauty: The Jewelry and Collector s of Linda MacNeil ,published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd ., 2002. Right: ASAGIMAEDA, Waiting Lounge Ring of ster ling silver, eighteenkarat gold, plastic.

33.1_MOBILIA2.CBJP-G FIN 10/20/09 5:24 PM Page 43

up, and it was just so much fun. I still do face painting for

parties sometimes.”

In the gallery’s early days there was an emphasis on

showing wearable art. “We showed work by Jean Williams

Cacicedo and Janet Lipkin, and K. Lee Manuel did painted

clothing and also fantastic painted feather collars. We showed

Gaza Bowen’s incredible leather sculptural shoes and Thea

Cadabra and James Rooke’s bags and fantastic high-heeled

shoes,” says Libby. But then the market changed and artists

were not creating one-of-a kind pieces as much. “Artists

started doing more multiples and for us that wasn’t as

interesting. Also displaying multiples was a problem—there

would just be too much. At that point we could have gone in

either direction. It doesn’t mean that their clothing still wasn’t

wonderful—we loved textiles, but I think that once it became

less labor intensive we were less interested. Also designers

started using painted fabrics so the line between the designer’s

work and the artist’s work became very blurry. We still

show wearables by one artist once in a while—Ellen Moon

spends three months creating a jacket that has been knitted,

crocheted, dyed, and embroidered—work that is one of a kind.

There’s just so much out there, that you need to focus on

what you want to show.”

Today, the diminutive but perfectly ordered gallery

shows an astonishingly wide range of work. On my recent

visit, ceramics serenely shared wall space with jewelry

mounted in frames, an apparently seaworthy rowboat with

a transparent bottom (so that you can see underwater

as you row) hung from the ceiling, bright paintings were

displayed high on the back wall, and cases of jewelry

hovered near the back of the gallery. Furniture and sculpture

on show are always perfectly placed and the eclectic mix of

artwork never feels overwhelming. The gallery is awash in

brilliant color.

The Coopers are drawn to work that is truly unique and

compelling in terms of technique, materials and concept.

“We’re interested in artists who are using a material that you’ve

never seen used before in a certain way, or who are taking an

idea or form in a different direction,” explains JoAnne. “For

example, Japanese jeweler Asagi Maeda actually creates scenes

inside her bracelets so that each one of her pieces tells a story.

Cristina Dias works in rubber but if you look at one of her

pieces you’re not sure if it’s rubber or glass. They are very

different artists whose work is vibrant in different ways.”

In terms of ceramics and glass, Libby says that they like

pieces that resemble textiles or have that sensibility to them.

She cites American artist Dorothy Feibleman’s intricate,

delicately patterned porcelain sake cups and tea bowls as an

example. “We like jewel-like pieces and pieces that look like

they are made of something other than what they are. We

always look at the technique. Sometimes the technique

challenges your immediate perception and then sometimes it’s

very obvious what it is and it’s just done so beautifully. And

we love color. Basically we show what we love, what we feel

passionate about. And that’s definitely always been our

guiding principle,” says Libby.

For the Coopers, art has always been a family affair.

JoAnne, Libby and their younger sister Susi (who owns Susi’s:

A Gallery For Children, just a few doors up the street) were

born and raised in the Boston area and credit their parents for

their love and appreciation of art. “The real reason that Libby

and I and our sister ever got into art, I believe, is because we

were encouraged by our father and mother. Our mother still

has tiles from drawings that we did in kindergarten hanging

up, and our father used to take us on studio visits to see artists

and help choose work. Our father wasn’t a professional

artist—he is a retired physician—but he painted and he loved

taking us to the galleries on Newbury Street in Boston. We44O

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always gave our opinion on paintings so I think it was through

them that we found our direction.”

It is this familial, heimish atmosphere—and deep

appreciation for the artist’s journey—that really resonates

with many of the artists represented by Mobilia. Jewelry artist

Cynthia Eid says, “I feel fortunate to live near Mobilia so that

I am able to hand-deliver my work, talk to them about it in

person, and I have been able to develop a warm relationship

with not only JoAnne and Libby, but their sister Susi, and their

mother as well. They have always been kind and encouraging

to me—beginning with when I had just graduated and moved

to the Boston area. I appreciate the fact that they are always

very positive but will also give helpful tips about what customers

are interested in and what features people find cumbersome

or awkward versus what is appreciated.

“Years ago, I brought in my parents, who were visiting, to

see the gallery and some new work I had made that was on

display. JoAnne and Libby treated my parents like royalty—

getting them chairs, and going next door to buy coffee and

cookies. They had sold a large necklace from the show and

were trying to figure out how to cut out a color Xerox of the

piece to put on the wall so that there would not be an empty

spot. I offered to cut it out and was shocked when they handed

me a twelve-inch-long pair of antique bronze scissors from

India to do the intricate cut-work—it took me nearly an hour.

The following week, I sent them a pair of orange-handled

Fiskars scissors, wrapped like a gift. This has become a running

joke between us—I ask them if they have anything they’d like

me to cut for them!”

Master goldsmith Kevin Coates met the Coopers while they

were in England visiting some of the artists they represent

and remembers: “It was a call from Gerda Flockinger which

started it all. How generous it was of Gerda to say that she

thought we should meet, and was sending them round to me,”

says Coates. “I have had a couple of bad experiences that have

made me wary of working with galleries, and I usually

prefer to have solo shows in museums. But from the moment

the indomitable pair came to my home and studio, it was

love and unquestioning trust at first sight—and from that first

overwhelming enthusiasm this has never wavered. My

admiration for JoAnne and Libby knows no bounds. They

have style, taste and their own unfailing instinct for what

is good and true.”

The Coopers are sensitive about the role they play for

artists. “I think the gallery-artist relationship is very important

because the artists really rely on their gallery for a lot of

different things,” says Libby. “Artists have to make art no matter

what; they need to make art for themselves. Once they start

worrying about price or making something a little bit less than

they might have done, they start compromising themselves.”

After thirty years of seeing ups and downs in the market

for art, JoAnne and Libby are philosophical about the current

economic crisis and its impact on the art world. “Through

good times and bad times people will still want to have or see

something beautiful just because art enriches your life and is

an important part of everybody’s life,” says JoAnne. “For

example, just a few days after 9/11 we were opening an

exhibition of Scottish jewelry and hollowware. Metalsmith

Dorothy Hogg (who curated the exhibition) had flown in

from Scotland, and we hired a bagpiper who was going to play

outside. We weren’t sure we should go ahead with the

festivities but then we did and it turned out that we had more

people attend than we ever expected. They all said they came

because they wanted to see something beautiful. They just

wanted to be somewhere where they felt really good. And to

me that was a perfect example of how crucial art is.” These

days, she says, people just stop by and say, “It just makes me

feel so good to come in here.”

JOE WOOD, Satellite Array BroochSeries, V1 of ster ling silver, stainlesssteel, printed SLA acrylic from CAD.Photograph by artist.

Opposite page, from left: MARILYNDA SILVA, Lazuli Bunting, removablebrooch mounted on framed panel.Brooch of ster ling silver, copper,brass foil, watch crystal, gesso,colored pencil; panel of copper,maple, printer’s ink.

HANNE BEHRENS, Untitled of silv er,eighteen karat gold. Photographby Cindy Brennan.

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