On Tuesday, June 15, 2021, at 11:30 a.m. Joseph Gallivan interviews painter Judy Cooke about her show Form First, which is at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery though June 26, 2021.
Cooke talks about the wooden forms she designs and then paints and collages, the hidden influences in her abstract pieces such as Zoot, and how she uses her studio walls to think through her next pieces.
Judy Cooke’s online viewing room. Link here: https://www.
Art critic Bruce Guenther did a virtual tour of her show for June First Thursday on YouTube with this link: https://youtu.be/uakjcWkowqY Judy's section of the video opening starts at 36:00.
Images of Judy's show, which is titled Form First will be on view June 3 - 26, 2021. The gallery is open Tuesday - Saturday, 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM.
FROM THE PRESS RELEASE:
Judy Cooke’s exhibition, Form First, highlights the artist’s exploration of shape and dimensionality through new minimalist wall constructions. Spatial relationships are central concerns to the artist, and precise considerations inform the physicality of her artworks. Extending only two inches from the wall, these wood and aluminum shapes cast distinct shadows while painted edges reiterate their “objectness” and formal presence.
Cooke’s artworks merge painting and sculpture with additions of bright pops of color and dynamic lines that encourage the viewer’s eye to move in all directions. In the vertical artwork, Staircase, 2021, brilliant orange shapes read like a statistical scale with marks that intermittently climb and fall. Cooke’s recent works appear like geometries within geometries. As they engage and reflect the space around them, the works subtly communicate ideas of containment and expansion.
Judy Cooke has been exploring abstract imagery and the structure of painting for over 40 years. With a strong understanding of and connection to the genres of geometric abstraction and abstract expressionism, Cooke explores the space between paintings and sculpture, examining the physical nature of the work. Cooke majored in printmaking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She received her BFA at Tufts University (Medford, MA) and a MAT at Reed College (Portland, OR). She has exhibited extensively, including a retrospective at the Art Gym at Marylhurst University (Marylhurst, OR), and exhibitions at Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), and Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA). She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious grants, including the Flintridge Foundation Award for Visual Art (Pasadena, CA), Regional Arts & Culture Council Visual Artist Fellowship Grant (Portland, OR), Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship in Painting (Salem, OR) and the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship. Her work is included in the collections of the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR), Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA), School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), and Boise Art Museum (Boise, ID), among many others.
Art Focus airs live at 11.30 am on Tuesdays and is archived to the KBOO website that evening.
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune, where he is currently the Business Reporter. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
This show was recorded by Pixel 5 at Judy Cooke;s home studio in Northwest Portland on June 10, 2021.
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