Nigel Cooke, “Experience” (2009) via Andrea Rosen Gallery
Andrea Rosen Gallery is presenting a group of recent works by British artist Nigel Cooke. The show, which features a combination of large canvases, miniatures, and small sculptures, is Cooke’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, and will run until June 13, 2009. Combining painting conventions of the past with the illustrative styles of street art and children’s books, Nigel Cooke has a growing reputation for his obsessively detailed fictional scenes set against unsettling landscapes. His later work focuses more closely on the single, isolated figure, seemingly caught in the nightmarish, highly disturbing version of a fairytale.
Related links:
Nigel Cooke Exhibition Page [Andrea Rosen]
Nigel Cooke Biography [Andrea Rosen]
Artist’s Page [Art Observed]
Installation view via Andrea Rosen Gallery
Cooke has long declared that painting died in the twentieth century, meaning that he has been working for years in a medium which he considers extinct. Lately, his practice has expanded beyond painting and drawing: this show features a series of small bronze heads that appear as though they had been burned. Made from clay, basketball caps, plastic food, cigarettes and always a fat clown nose, these effigies combine the absurd with the disturbing. Like his paintings, Cooke’s sculptures reveal unique visions of the world that hover between reality and the imaginary.
Installation view via Andrea Rosen Gallery
Nigel Cooke, “Blind Snake 2” (2009) via Andrea Rosen Gallery
Below, additional works by the artist, via Andrea Rosen Gallery.
Nigel Cooke, “The Philosopher” (2005)Â
Nigel Cooke, “Economimesis” (2008)
Nigel Cooke, “I Am Time” (2009)
Nigel Cooke, “Theme Park” (2008)
Nigel Cooke, “Ghosts That Need Tending (2006)
