Nigel Cooke
October 21, 2011–February 18, 2012
The Goss-Michael Foundation
1405 Turtle Creek Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75207
The Goss-Michael Foundation is pleased to present a solo show by prominent British artist Nigel Cooke. The exhibition, mainly consisting of works belonging to the Goss-Michael Collection and local collectors, opened to the public on Friday, October 21, 2011 and continues through Saturday, February 18, 2012.
The show, covering all of Cooke’s work up to the present, is the most comprehensive show of Nigel Cooke’s work to date in the United States. The exhibition has been created with the support of Andrea Rosen Gallery, NY; Blum & Poe, LA; Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London, and in close collaboration with the artist.
Nigel Cooke’s paintings construct a dark and melancholic world, played out in a deeply psychologized landscape populated by disaffected artists, philosophers, and a host of anthropomorphized and dejected foodstuffs. These cultural vagrants are martyrs to the existential melodrama of abstract thought, haunting a tired, post-industrial frontier where nature and creative endeavor collide in both landscape and mindscape. Abandoning reason, they gleefully and foolishly throw themselves headlong into an unknown, producing action that satirizes their hubris and self-absorption.
Nigel Cooke’s work embodies a ridiculing of the vanities of artistic production, while at the same time celebrating its creative capacity for intellectual renewal, visionary thought and self-criticism. Cooke demonstrates a technical faculty and deftness of painterly touch that is at complete odds with the pathetic, hackneyed paintings, books and sculptures created by the subjects and characters, which appear in various guises within the paintings themselves. Cooke’s restless intellect has always fed continuous progression, and this exhibition presents an opportunity to survey key points in the developmental phases of Cooke’s image making, conceptual structures and narrative world.
Nigel Cooke lives and works in London. He received a PhD in Fine Art from Goldsmith’s College, London, in 2004, and MA Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, London, in 1997. Cooke has been the subject of solo museum shows at the Modern Museet, Stockholm (2007), The Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth (2006), Art Now, Tate Britain (2004), and South London Gallery, London (2006). Cooke’s paintings are held amongst the most esteemed international collections, including Tate, London; British Council, London; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Dallas Museum of Art; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. A monograph featuring an essay by Michael Bracewell and an interview between the artist and Martin Herbert was published by König Books, London, in late 2010.
The Goss-Michael Foundation was founded by George Michael and Kenny Goss in June 2007. The Foundation offers the public a rotating schedule of exhibitions derived from Goss and Michael’s private collection of British contemporary art as well as other institutions. These exhibitions serve as a challenge to preconceived art notions and strive to set a new standard in artistic awareness by providing visitors with fresh and fascinating art experiences. Through these experiences, the Foundation hopes to generate new perspectives and conversations on the creative methods of contemporary artists. Locally, the Foundation is dedicated to contributing to Dallas’ thriving artistic community and enhancing the public’s familiarity and interaction with contemporary and emerging British artists. Earlier exhibitions have featured Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn, Michael Craig-Martin and Jim Lambie.
The Goss-Michael Foundation Hours: Tuesday–Friday 10:00am–6:00pm, Saturday 11:00am–4:00pm, Monday by appointment only. There is no charge to visit the Foundation.
*Image above:
Courtesy The Goss-Michael Collection, Pinnell Collection and Rachofsky Collection,
Stuart Shave I Modern Art, London, and Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
© Nigel Cooke
Photo by Todd-White Art Photography
