Nigel Cooke (born 1973 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, UK) is a British painter who currently lives and works in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Life and career

Nigel Cooke attended

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

at Undergraduate level (1991–1994) before completing a M.A at

The Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It off ...

, London (1995–1997) and PHD from Goldsmiths (1998–2004). He is currently a visiting lecturer at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, London.

Artistic Practice

Nigel Cooke’s paintings depict carnivalesque figures set within harsh landscapes that are littered with urban decay. The paintings imply a strong sense of foreboding both through the depicted forms such as skulls and derelict buildings and also through his use of colour which often features bilious toxic greens. The paintings develop and change over a protracted period of time and are built up though many layers of oil paint. The paintings often balance different languages of paint within the same canvas. Vast areas of colour are combined with obsessively detailed figuration and in recent works Cooke has incorporated large sweeping gestural marks into his compositions.

Collections

Cooke's work has been exhibited internationally and features in major museum collections including

The Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London, The MOMA in New York and The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in New York. He is currently represented by

Pace Gallery The Pace Gallery is an American contemporary and modern art gallery with 9 locations worldwide. It was founded in Boston by Arne Glimcher in 1960. His son, Marc Glimcher, is now president and CEO. Pace Gallery operates in New York, London, Hong ...

in New York and London, and

Blum & Poe Blum & Poe is a contemporary art gallery located in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. Development Blum & Poe was founded by Tim Blum and Jeff Poe in Santa Monica, California, in September 1994. The inaugural exhibition in Santa Monica featured ...

in Los Angeles.

Literature

Darian Leader Darian Leader (born 1965) is a British psychoanalyst and author. Biography Leader was educated at St Paul's School in London, studied philosophy at Downing College, Cambridge and then he earned an M.A. in history of science in Paris (at ...

, Tony Godfrey,

Marie Darrieussecq Marie Darrieussecq (born 3 January 1969, Bayonne) is a French writer. She is also a translator, and has practised as a psychoanalyst. Her books explore the unspoken and abandoned territories in literature. Her work is dense, marked by a constant ...

, ''Nigel Cooke'', Phaidon, London, 2016 * Michael Bracewell, Martin Herbert, ''Nigel Cooke'', Walter König, Cologne, 2011

References

External links

* http://www.pacegallery.com/artists/563/nigel-cooke * https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/nigel-cooke * http://nigelcooke.net/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Nigel 1973 births British painters Living people British contemporary artists Artists from Manchester