American artist Philip Taaffe attended Cooper Union in New York. Taaffe’s abstract paintings employ symbols drawn from an array of cultural and historical sources, from Islamic architecture and Eastern European textile design, to calligraphy and information technology. Taaffe’s work is represented in major public collections including the MoMA, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid. A solo exhibition of his work took place at IMMA in 2011.