Nigel Cooke, Nature Loves You (2011–2012). All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.
Andrea Rosen Gallery in Chelsea is currently showing Nigel Cooke’s 4th solo show in the multi-room space. Cooke was on hand at the press preview to speak about the ten new paintings that marked for the artist a move into a much more dynamic and engaging direction. The press release references de Kooning‘s infamous “No Holidays” quote—that none of his work should ever have a caesura, that work should be an endlessly ongoing practice. Cooke displays reverence to that adage; every work is “three paintings in one.” Conceived by first laying a figurative layer full of characters and interaction, followed by sweeping obscurative strokes, and then capped by an attempt to rearrange order from the chaos induced—flushing out imagined smoking flower women, tree branches, and odd clown-skull masks.
Artist Nigel Cooke at the press preview
Nigel Cooke, Widow (2011), detail
Nigel Cooke, Widow (2011), detail
Cooke is speaking to “an involved frontier space,” “the edge of cultural or physical realms” and the intriguing relationship between “the painting of nature and the nature of painting.” His works seek to be mutually supportive; most are set by the water and yet use strokes reminiscent of waves and water to abstract the content of the pieces.
Nigel Cooke, Spring (2012), detail
Nigel Cooke, Dreaming Head (2011)
Nigel Cooke, Dreaming Head (2011), detail
Nigel Cooke, Lovers with Clown Storm (2011–2012), left; Nigel Cooke, The Widow (2011), right
Nigel Cooke, Lovers with Clown Storm (2011–2012), detail
Nigel Cooke, Nature Loves You (2011–2012), detail
Nigel Cooke, Hawaiian Tropic (The Honeymooners) (2011).
—D. Cloninger
Related Links:
Exhibition Site [Andrea Rosen]
Gallery Twitter [@RosenGalery]
