Faculty Profile

Ceca C. Cooper, M.F.A.

Associate Professor, Art

Ceca Cooper is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Sioux Falls, where she teaches drawing, painting, and art appreciation. Her paintings have been exhibited regionally and nationally. In 2000, she was selected as one of 24 out of 600+ artists in the United States to be featured in New American Paintings: MFA Journal, which was juried by the art historian and critic, Klaus Kertess. Ceca often references landscapes with various symbols such as houses, birds, containers and vessels to create a discourse about ideas of boundaries (both man-made and natural), limitations and containment—both physically and spiritually.

Education

  • Master of Fine Arts, Painting, University of South Dakota, 2000

Courses Taught

  • ART 100 - Art Appreciation
  • ART 204 - Painting I
  • ART 101 - Introduction to Drawing
  • ART 209 - Art History I
  • ART 300 - Senior Art Colloquium
  • ART 466 - Senior Thesis ( capstone course)
  • ART 335 - Art Methods in Education
  • LAR 212 - Honors Humanities
  • -
  • 241 - Advanced Painting
  • 340 AND 341 - Art and Travel
  • ART 240 -

Expertise

  • Instruction in drawing, painting and mixed media, art appreciation and art history. Additionally, team teaches the LAR 212: Honors Humanities each spring

Research

Ceca spent her sabbatical year in Barcelona researching the works of Antoni Gaudi.  Upon her return, she exhibited her second solo exhibition at the Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center in 2016, a body of work influenced by the designs of Gaudi and Moorish architecture of southern Spain and Morocco.  

Scholarships and Creative Work

Presentations
  • May 2015 visiting artist, University of South Dakota, Vermilion, SD
Exhibitions
  • April 2019 Ipso Gallery, invitational group exhibition, Sioux Falls, SD
  • Oct 2018 Permanent installation of paintings at Sanford Hospice
  • April 2017 Ipso Gallery, invitational exhibition, Sioux Falls, SD
  • Dec 2017 Permanent installation of paintings at Joe Foss Regional Airport, Sioux Falls, SD
  • Dec. 2016 Solo Exhibition, Elsewhere and Here, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, SD
  • Aug 2015 Permanent installation of painting, Raven Industry, Sioux Falls, SD
  • Dec. 2010 Take the Day/Remains of the Day; an invitational exhibition, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls, SD
  • Nov. 2010 P3 Exhibition, a collaborative exhibition between local and regional poets and painters, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls
  • 2021 Group Exhibition, Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls
  • Lucky Number: Group Exhibition at Ipso Gallery, Sioux Falls, April 14, 2023
  • Commissioned artwork for the new Cherapa Building in downtown Sioux Falls.

Service/Volunteer Work

Washington Pavilion

Volunteer at Sidewalk Arts Festival for the past 10 years. 

Sioux Falls Design Center

Founding Board of Directors member

Mayor of Sioux Falls Report for the Arts

Was chair of the Artist Task Force for the Mayors Report on the Arts, 2016

Visual Arts Commission

Mayoral Appointment to the VAC for two consecutive terms. 

Volunteers of America

Helped establish arts teaching program for adults with cognitive disabilities.