The Power Plant

Aleesa Cohene is a Canadian visual artist based in Los Angeles, born in 1976 in Vancouver, BC.

Cohene's practice explores appropriation in media arts, sculpture, and scent, reflecting on broader conversations around the production and circulation of cultural material. Cohene typically works with found materials, scavenging, replicating, and remixing images, sounds, and objects. Their work explores the questions these practices provoke—about transgression, intervention, cultural appropriation, ownership, property, and power.

Their work has been shown in major Canadian museums and galleries in multiple provinces including The Power Plant (Ontario), Contemporary Calgary, MacKenzie Art Gallery (Saskatchewan), and Confederation Centre Art Gallery. They have been awarded residencies in Canada, the U.S., Denmark, and the Netherlands, and their work has screened internationally. The 2017 project I Don't Get It was commissioned by three major Canadian institutions (The Western Front, The Rooms, and Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography) for a solo exhibition tour across Canada. Cohene's work is part of the permanent collection of Oakville Galleries, and has been acquired by private collectors.

In 2021, Cohene founded the multidisciplinary creative agency I Know You Know, which works with arts and cultural institutions, artists, scholars and culturally conscious businesses and brands. The agency works with a team of international artists and designers to produce visual identities, digital projects, publications, and environments.