Cooper Salmon

Cooper Salmon is a Bay Area visual artist, painter, and educator. He received his BFA in Painting/Drawing from California College of the Arts in 2019 and is currently a 2025 MFA candidate at Stanford University. 

Salmon paints cartoon-like, playful illustrations of everyday moments that draw inspiration from people in his life. He works primarily with acrylic figurative painting approaches, using expressive brushstrokes and thin layers of acrylic paint. In b. patisserie, Salmon explores the relationship between food and labor in the context of the restaurant industry, gleaned from his own experience working in restaurant kitchens when he was an undergraduate student.

Salmon’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in galleries throughout the Bay Area including at Soft Times Gallery, slash Art, WERKSHACK Gallery, Gearbox Gallery, and Palo Alto Art Center to name a few. He is the recipient of the William and Gloria Brobeck Scholarship from CCA and the University Schools Innovation Award from University of Memphis Middle School for his unique approach to classroom learning as a fine arts instructor.

Cooper Salmon, b. patisserie, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 39 x 39 in., Courtesy of the artist