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Christopher Cook (b. 1959, North Yorkshire, UK) is a British painter known for his use of liquid graphite, a medium he developed that combines graphite powder, resin and other solvents. His technique lends itself to a range of mark-making, from the rapid and improvisational to the finely detailed, and when applied to coated paper or sheets of primed aluminum, it results in a fusion of drawing and painting. The unpredictability of Cook’s process and the fluidity of his medium pushes the artist to work on instinct and allows for spontaneous improvisations within flowing, dream-like compositions.
His recognizable monochrome graphite process emerged from three extended trips to India in the mid 1990’s. Cook draws on traditions of Asian landscape painting and calligraphy but also on Surrealist methods of play, serendipity and recognition. Within his work, he has explored the psychologically charged interiors of empty theaters, the visually static motion of waterfalls and the experience of passing through darkened tunnels. The result is a highly evocative image accomplished through an economy of mark-making.
Cook received his MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London. He spent three years in Bologna as an Italian government scholar, exhibiting in venues such as Casa Masaccio and at the Palazzo Vecchio, and in 1991-1994, he was a guest artist at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany and visiting fellow at Oxford. In 2017, he received the Valeria Sykes Award. Cook currently lives and works in Devon, UK.
His work is in numerous prominent museum collections, including the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, OH; British Museum, London, UK; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK; Haugesund Billedgalleri, Haugesund, NO; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Oxford University, UK; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MI; Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter, UK Royal College of Art, London, UK; Today Art Museum, Beijing, CN; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT and the Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, JP
His work has been included in several solo and group exhibitions around the world, at RYAN LEE Gallery (2018), Bowes Museum (2018), Nanjing Arts Institute (2018), Langgeng Foundation (2011), Today Art Museum, China (2007), Yokohama Museum of Art (2005), Museum of Art at the University of Memphis (2004), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2000), Stedelijk Museum Breda (1999), Haugesund Kunstforening (1997) and the Camden Art Centre, (1985).
Mary Ryan Gallery represents Cook in New York and has held several solo and group exhibitions featuring Cook’s work.
His recognizable monochrome graphite process emerged from three extended trips to India in the mid 1990’s. Cook draws on traditions of Asian landscape painting and calligraphy but also on Surrealist methods of play, serendipity and recognition. Within his work, he has explored the psychologically charged interiors of empty theaters, the visually static motion of waterfalls and the experience of passing through darkened tunnels. The result is a highly evocative image accomplished through an economy of mark-making.
Cook received his MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London. He spent three years in Bologna as an Italian government scholar, exhibiting in venues such as Casa Masaccio and at the Palazzo Vecchio, and in 1991-1994, he was a guest artist at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany and visiting fellow at Oxford. In 2017, he received the Valeria Sykes Award. Cook currently lives and works in Devon, UK.
His work is in numerous prominent museum collections, including the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, OH; British Museum, London, UK; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK; Haugesund Billedgalleri, Haugesund, NO; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Oxford University, UK; Minneapolis Institute of Art, MI; Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter, UK Royal College of Art, London, UK; Today Art Museum, Beijing, CN; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT and the Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, JP
His work has been included in several solo and group exhibitions around the world, at RYAN LEE Gallery (2018), Bowes Museum (2018), Nanjing Arts Institute (2018), Langgeng Foundation (2011), Today Art Museum, China (2007), Yokohama Museum of Art (2005), Museum of Art at the University of Memphis (2004), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2000), Stedelijk Museum Breda (1999), Haugesund Kunstforening (1997) and the Camden Art Centre, (1985).
Mary Ryan Gallery represents Cook in New York and has held several solo and group exhibitions featuring Cook’s work.
