MICHELLE COOKE
ARTIST STATEMENT
The recurring themes in my work are fragility, transparency, balance, weightlessness, and gravity. Each work yields its meaning through the handling of the material; fragile materials used in unconventional ways. This work with glass focuses on the inherent tension between its transparency as a light medium and its aggressiveness as a projecting grid.
BIOGRAPHY
Michelle Cooke’s work imbues a keen sensibility for the physical integrity of her materials with rigorous attention to formal structure. The effect is a literal and powerful presence. Cooke lets the inherent properties of her materials— egg shells, parchment, steel wool, glass squares—create their own narrative within a framework of sensuous abstraction used to communicate deeply personal and poetic messages.
Cooke’s work with glass slides, perhaps the signature statement of her style, offers insight into this approach. The glass installations convey a disarming directness and an immediate visual reference to the structural properties of light. At first transparent and virtually self-effacing, the wall-mounted glass squares create lyrical and tactile light effects of enormous evocative power, while at the same time the grid’s enigmatic formal structure subdues the aggressive echelons of projecting glass.
Michelle Cooke holds an M.F.A. from Claremont Graduate University. Her current work involves drawing, installation, and steel-mixed media sculpture. She lives and works in New York and Taos, NM.
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna, California
University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles
Bareiss Gallery | 15 State Rd 150 | PO Box 3366 Taos NM 87571 | 575-776-2284
CV
MICHELLE COOKE
www.michellecooke.com
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna, California
University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Bareiss Gallery, Taos, NM
2020 Schoolhouse Gallery, Croton Falls, New York
2017 5.Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2016 Studio Sculpture and Drawings, Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2015 Soho Salon at the Mendez Studio, Invitational Presentation, New York, New York
2014 Gauze, an installation, HVCPA, Patterson, New York
2013 Current Work, Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2012 Light/Glass , Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2012 Light/Glass Installation, Poem, Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico
2011 Zeta, Light/Glass Installation with Drawings, Eight ModernGallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2010 Glass, Box Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2009 Zeichnungen und Glasinstallationen, 91 Prinzregentenstrasse, Munich, Germany
2008 Drawings, Fenix Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2008 Growth, Mesa Public Library Art Gallery, Los Alamos, New Mexico
2008 Graphite, Glass, and Steel, Box Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2006 Retrospective, Box Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2005 1030 Agua Fria, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 Critical Facture, Whelan Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1999 Whelan Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1999 Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1998 Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1997 Glass Installation, Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1997 Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1996 Installation Ships, Pasadena, California
1996 Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1995 Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1995 University of New Mexico, Taos/Canon Center, Taos, New Mexico
1994 Canyon Contemporary Art, Columbus, Ohio
1992 Gallery 200, Columbus, Ohio
1991 The Rome Series II, Rome, Italy
1990 C.R. Obetz Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
1987 Glass Installation, Denison University, Granville, Ohio
1985 Evolution of a City Installation, Villa Massenzia, Rome, Italy
1984 Rome Series, Villa Massenzia, Rome Italy
1983 East Gallery, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
1982 Ettinger Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Harwood Museum, Taos, New Mexico
2016 Transforming Space, Susan Christie Curator, Las Cruces Museum, Las Cruces, New Mexico
2015 Pressing Through Time, Juried Exhibition, Taos Art Museum, Taos, New Mexico
2015 Print Invitational, Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2014 Drawing, Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2013 Invitational, Ann Landi Curator, Taos Center for the Arts, Taos, New Mexico
2013 A New Minimalism, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
2012 Focus on Form, Small Sculpture, Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2012 Guild Hall Annual, Best Sculpture Award-Lilly Wei juror, East Hampton, New York
2012 Taos Contemporary, The Center for Visual Art Metropolitan State College, Denver, Colorado
2012 Art of the Dress, Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico
2011 SOFA West Glass Installation Heat, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011 18 Days, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Juried Exhibition, CCA, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011 New Mexorado, Juried Exhibition, Glass Installations, Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico
2011 Glass Installation, Cheryl Hazen Gallery, New York, New York
2010 Art Glass Invitational and Juried Exhibition, Hulse Warman Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2010 Miniature, Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico
2009 Biennial 600: Glass, Juried Exhibition, Third Place Award, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, Texas
2008 Selected Works, Fenix Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2008 Flux, Reflections on Contemporary Glass, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2007 Focus, Taos, New Mexico
2006 Wilder Nightengale Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
2006 Box Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2005 1030 Agua Fria, Raw Art, Temporal, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2003 Millicent Rogers Museum, Taos, New Mexico
2003 Danforth Museum, Framingham, Massachusetts
2002 Northern New Mexico Printmakers, Foothills Art Center, Golden, Colorado
2001 Whelan Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2001 Window Project, Museum of Fine Art site, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 Window Project, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1999 National Museum of Women in the Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1999 Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, New Mexico
1999 Site Santa Fe Monothon Exhibit, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1998 Scandal, Bareiss Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
1998 De Collage, Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1998 Site Santa Fe Monothon Exhibit, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1997 NM Film & Video Makers Forum, Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
1997 Director’s Choice, Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1997 Short Attention Span Film and Video Festival, San Francisco, New York, Berkeley
1997 Jan Maiden Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio
1996 Jan Maiden Fine Art
1996 John Sommers Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1994 University of New Mexico, Taos, New Mexico
1993 Canyon Contemporary Art, Columbus, Ohio
1992 Small Works, The Art Store, Charleston, West Virginia
1990 Roman Landscape, Monte Video, Rome, Italy
1986 Collectors Gallery, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
1983 University of California Juried Show, Irvine, California
1983 OCCCA Juried Show, Costa Mesa, California
1982 Barriers Installation, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
1982 Predictions, Libra Gallery, Claremont, California
1982 Southern California Art, Juried Show, Fullerton, California
1982 University of California Prints, Irvine, California
PUBLICATIONS, AWARDS, COMMISSIONS
Vasari 21, interview and review, 2017
SPOT, review, Jon Carver, 2017
THE Magazine, review , 2017
Teacher of the Year in Art, Cerebral Palsy Association of New York, HVCPA, 2015
Artist as Collector, The Gus Foster Collection, 2014
Guild Hall 74th Annual, 2012 Best Sculpture Award-Lilly Wei juror, East Hampton, New York
THE Magazine, review of Eight Modern Gallery, Santa Fe, NM exhibition, November, 2011
Albuquerque Journal, review of Eight Modern Gallery, Santa Fe, NM exhibition, October, 2011
Santa Fean Magazine, Artist Profile, June, 2011
THE Magazine, review of New Mexorado Juried Exhibition Harwood Museum, May, 2011
THE Magazine, review of solo exhibition Box Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, December/January 2011
THE Magazine, Critical Reflections Image, February/March 2010
Biennial 600: Glass, Third Place Award, Juror: Dante Marioni, Amarillo Museum of Art, 2009
Flux, Reflections on Contemporary Glass, New Mexico Museum of Art, 2008, Laura M. Addison
THE Magazine, review, Growth Installation, December/January 2009
Los Alamos Monitor, interview, Growth Installation, November 12, 2008
THE Magazine, Private Collections – Critic's Choice, October 2008
Santa Fean Magazine, October/November, 2008
THE Magazine, review, Flux Exhibition, July 2008
THE Magazine, Drawing, June 2007
Taos News, profile, November 2006
THE Magazine, review, September 2005
The Santa Fe Reporter, review, August 3, 2005
Art of the Book in the Southwest, Millicent Rogers Museum, 2003, Shelby Tisdale
THE Magazine, review, August 2003
Art New England, “Profile”, June/July 2001
The Santa Fe New Mexican, review, October 22, 1999
THE Magazine, review, December 1999
Albuquerque Journal, review, October 24, 1999
The Santa Fe New Mexican, review, June 18,1999
THE Magazine, review, March 1999
Geronimo, review, February 1999
Columbus Dispatch, review, 1998
THE Magazine, review, July 1998
Columbus Dispatch, review, 1997
Kenyon College Commission, Ugly Party Series, Gambier, Ohio
Southern California Art, Fullerton, California, Leonard Edmonston, Juror, First Place
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Costa Mesa, California, Sandy Ballatore, Juror
Shepard of the Hills Church, Laguna Niguel, California, Commission for the Main Alter
ART/SLIDE REGISTRIES
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (Slide Archive)
The Drawing Center, New York, New York
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
Ohio Arts Council, Columbus, Ohio
Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California
AFFILIATIONS
Harwood Museum Alliance Board, Art Committee, Strategic Planning Collections and Exhibitions ,Taos, NM
Phi Theta Kappa, American Association of University Professors, College Art Association, Hudson Valley Cerebral Palsy Association
Michelle Cooke