Christopher Cook | Skirmish

Artist Statement

I have worked in monochrome for the past twenty years, specifically a fluid medium that combines graphite powder with resin and oil, that allows aspects of painting and of drawing to be used at different moments of image construction. Paramount to my process is a high degree of improvisation and testing in the early stages of making, and monochrome has been influential in this by removing the insistent associative triggers of colour. Monochrome has also opened up potential connections to early black and white photography, and to gestural ink painting of the Eastern traditions. I appreciate Odilon Redon’s position that “one must respect black, nothing prostitutes it. It does not please the eye and it awakens no sensuality. It is the agent of the mind far more than the most beautiful color of the palette or prism”.

These current graphite images are made onto coated paper, and are based on 17th century Dutch Still Life painting, a preoccupation that began with straightforward transpositions of iconic works, but which became a sustained imaginative inquiry. A clear intention of the Dutch genre is as display of wealth and power, of colonialist expansionism, as well as of beauty, and the more I looked, the more this contradiction came to reflect a ‘coming of age’ of capitalism and materialism. This recognition prompted me to consider contemporary implications of the genre by disrupting the beauty of the various tableaux by the addition of anachronistic elements that suggested modern-day exploitation, conflict, and protectionism. I want however to maintain a balance between my reverence for the original works and this iconoclastic tendency.

The images exhibited at Sunny Art Centre represent a range of these themes, from the subtle mischief-maker lemur among the precious objects of The Thief, to the more overt threats of conflict in Skirmish and Shadowy. DMZ Still Life was made during a residency in Nicosia, Cyprus, in which the displays of wealth and well-being become trapped and trivialised within a demilitarised zone.

Artist CV

Education
1979-81 B.A. English Literature and Fine Art, University of Exeter

1983-86 M.A. Painting, Royal College of Art London

Currently: Reader in Painting, University of Plymouth

Selected Solo shows

2019     
York Art Gallery

2018
Ryan Lee Gallery New York

2015     
Hubner and Hubner Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany

2014     
Art First London

2013     
Ryan Lee Gallery, New York

2011     
Langgeng Foundation, Jogjakarta, Indonesia

2010     
Mary Ryan Gallery New York

2009     
Fine Art Society London

2007     
Today Art Museum, Beijing

Mary Ryan Gallery, New York

2005     
Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan

California State University Long Beach

2004     
Art Museum, University of Memphis, TN

Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY

Diboll Gallery, New Orleans, USA

2003     
Hirschl Contemporary Art, London

Eden Project, Cornwall, UK

2002     
Koraalberg Gallery, Antwerp

2001     
Ferens Museum, Hull, UK

Hirschl Contemporary Art, London

Towner Museum and Art Gallery, Eastbourne

2000     
Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany

Selected Group Exhibitions
2018     
Layers of Visibility, NiMAC Nicosia

New Light, Tullie House Carlisle

Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Mall Galleries, London

2017     
Art First @ Eagle Gallery London

New Light, Bowes Museum, Co Durham.

Langgeng Fundation Jogjakarta, Indonesia

2014     
John Moores Liverpool

Flow Szechuan Art Academy, Chongqing, China

2013     
Graphite GVArt, London

MIMA Middlesbrough

2012     
Amalgam, Mary Ryan New York

2011     
Dust on the Mirror, ICA Singapore

Drawings for the New Century, Minneapolis Museum of Art USA

Grey, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge

2010     
Dust on the Mirror, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham UK

2009     
Triangle Gallery, Chelsea School of Art London

Spazi Aperti, Accademia di Romania, Rome, Italy

2008     
Leaded, Salina Art Gallery, Kansas, USA and tour

Tempo Reale, British School at Rome, Italy.

2007     
Trace and Transience CCANW Devon

2006     
Until it Makes Sense, Gallery Seventeen, London.

Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Paris

2005     
Yale Center for British Art USA

Recent Acquisitions Cleveland Museum USA

2004     
Drawing Weatherspoon Art Center, N Carolina, USA

2003     
East of Eden Spacex Gallery Exeter

2002     
Crossing the Border  Morley Gallery, London

2001     
West by South West, Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Norway

2000     
John Moores 21, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (Prizewinner)

Awards
2017     
New Light First Prize

2013     
Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Liguria, Italy

2011     
Resident Artist, Langgeng Foundation, Jogjakarta, Indonesia

2009     
PAS Scholar, British School at Rome

2006     
British Council Award, Beijing

2005     
Daiwa Award, Yokohama Triennial

2004     
British Council Award to University of Memphis, USA

2001     
Arts Council England Residency, Eden Project Cornwall UK

2000     
AHRC award, Bundanon Trust, Australia

1999     
John Moores XXI Prizewinner