Modern Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new paintings by Nigel Cooke. This is the British painter’s fifth solo show with Modern Art, and three years since he last exhibited in London.

Nigel Cooke’s exhibition at Modern Art is comprised of four large new paintings, all made over the course of the past year.

Cooke’s new paintings 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

Nigel Cooke was born in Manchester in 1973, and lives and works in Kent. Cooke holds a PhD in Fine Art from Goldsmith’s College, London (2004), and MA Fine Art from the Royal College of Art, London (1997). His work has featured in solo exhibitions at Dublin’s Douglas Hyde Gallery (2013), Stockholm’s Moderna Museet (2007), Museum of Modern Art Fort Worth (2006), South London Gallery (2006), and Tate Britain (2004). Nigel Cooke’s work is held in many important public and private collections including those of the Tate, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

All images Courtesy Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London.