Brett Cook’s Meditations Provides Food for Thought at Wesleyan’s Zilkha Gallery Press Release for April 19—May 22 2005 --- Mural-size paintings, graffiti, Audio/Video and Participation Combine for an Exhibition in Looking Deeply Middletown, CT, April 1, 2005— Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts will host a major exhibition of work by Brett Cook, beginning Wednesday, April 20 and running through Sunday May 22, 2005. The gallery, located at 283 Washington Terrace, is open to the public free of charge. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 4pm. Two special events, also free to the public, are planned in association with the exhibition. On Tuesday, April 19 at 4:15pm in Zilkha room 106, a public dialogue with Brett will explore the social, cultural, and spiritual realities of contemporary America and how his work is involved in those realities. On Wednesday, April 20 from noon to 1pm in Zilkha Gallery, a reception will include the completion of a piece of social collaboration. All of the work in this show, in process and product, involve aspects of meditation to catalyze contemplation. Brett is perhaps best known for his self reflective, large-scale, shrine-like installations incorporating biographical materials as well as drawings, objects, words and photographs—his Multifaceted series. Two of these, Documentation of a Grandma and Documentation of Blackness, will be on display at Zilkha. A third collaborative work, incorporating Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, will be developed with the assistance of Zilkha curator Nina Felshin’s undergraduate class, Issues in Contemporary Art. Attendees of the opening reception will have an opportunity to contribute to this new work that models Freire’s idea of Praxis – reflection and action. Many of Brett’s paintings, installations and drawings involve portraiture. Those works created in spray enamel are inspired by graffiti but are vastly more complex. Using color theory and spray paint Brett takes the medium of graffiti art and creates complex portraits that can easily be mistaken for brush painting. As he is inspired by the more recent post-modern history of graffiti Brett is influenced by the classic modernist history of painting, and non-western creative practices - a unique synthesis of a variety of visual languages, histories, and cultures. Brett’s Models of Accountability series, which resulted from an ongoing study of avatars for social change, is also represented in the exhibition, including portraits of César Chávez and Arundhati Roy on mirrors. An assortment of their written words and published text are accessible on mirrored shelves at the base of each piece. These works shift and refract their imagery as the viewer moves among them. By allowing the mirror to show through the paintings, the viewer can recognize themselves within, rather than apart from, advocates of human value. A series of spray enamel drawings on transparent acetate from the Images of Hip Hop series looks deeply at the origins of one of America’s most popular cultural products. An abundance of drawings from the Mindfulness series, executed in a variety of scales and materials, will be on display with particular reference to Buddhist concepts. These two series use figuration to reference specific historical, social, and spiritual histories recontextualizing the way these popular images are viewed. Along with his gallery work, Brett has engaged in numerous public projects, including a collaborative project in South Central Los Angeles addressing divinity and the Development/Gentrification Project with 10 installations throughout Harlem. Brett’s social collaborations typically depict people living in the areas where the work is installed, bringing art to a wide audience that does not always frequent museums and galleries. Using ethnographic and pedagogical strategies, the work always involves the participation of the subject. “It’s about giving people a voice, empowering marginalized communities," explains the artist. This inclusive, multidisciplinary aspect of his work will be represented by photo-documentation, videotapes, and paintings on panels in Zilkha’s South Gallery. Brett Cook received a B.A. in art from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991. His Minor in education has played an important part in the development of his work and his frequently participatory process. He has exhibited in museums and galleries since 1991 while simultaneously engaging in public projects. His public projects, often ephemeral in nature, have been executed in the United States from California to Maine and internationally in Brazil, Barbados and Mexico. Some have been commissioned by museums or public agencies while others have been self-initiated interventions in abandoned spaces. Cook has completed scores of these projects, often through an interactive and collaborative process. He has received a number of awards including residencies at Skowhegan School and the Studio Museum in Harlem, and he has been an active teacher and lecturer. He is represented in New York by the PPOW Gallery. This exhibition is curated by Nina Felshin. Meditations Exhibition Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts
Meditations Slide Shows
Meditations Exhibition Details
 
 
Dialogue Collaboration
Collaborative Project
 
 
 
Exhibition Links
  1. •The Wesleyan Connection: Campus Snapshot