Nigel Cooke’s four new paintings, recently shown at Modern Art, create layered images of atmospheric landscapes with suggestions of architecture, vegetation and abstract shapes, inhabited by ghostly figures and closely painted objects that include books, watches, eyeballs, and decaying fruit. Cooke’s paintings use techniques and motifs that often articulate references to painters and painting’s history. Throughout his work, Cooke depicts an open narrative of intellectual pursuit, creative endeavour, and human folly.
“Our modern illusions of progress and sophistication are destroyed by the humiliations of the creative process generally, and for me the complexities of the painting process specifically” – Nigel Cooke. Continue reading “New Paintings by Nigel Cooke”
