Ron Cooper: Founder, Del Maguey Ron Cooper has been featured in group shows and solo exhibitions around the world since 1967. With his roots in California, Cooper has resided and worked in Ranchos de Taos, NM for the last thirty years and Oaxaca, Mexico since 1995. His work is included in many prestigious public collections, including: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Fort Worth Museum of Contemporary Art; The Chicago Art Institute; Stedlijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Cooper prefers to be recognized for his "artistic license" using all materials - and his continual growth and change. Cooper’s latest body of work represents the artist’s ongoing concern with the metaphors of transformation, from the tantric arts of Asia to the pre-Conquest Zapotec, Maya, Olmec and Aztec ceremonial arts. Contemporary Mexican artisans have collaborated with Cooper. Found objects are integral to his creations in oil on canvas, clay, stone, wood, tin, glass, paper, alcohol and textiles. Cooper continues to use light, void and volume to transform his art into information which allows the spectator to “turn the mind on to itself and its emotions.” Del Maguey(DM) is presently distributed in over 35 States in the U.S. as well as small quantities in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, the U.K and Vietnam. DM supports the amazing biodiversity and rich, cultural heritage of Oaxaca. Having developed meaningful relationships with it’s Zapotec Mexican Indian producers, DM has organized and improved communications, implemented greatly increased stable and planned annual incomes for the palenqueros and their extended families, emergency medical support, ecologically beneficial agricultural educational programs to achieve sustainable, organic, artisanal production.