Untitled, Interior 72 X 102 cm Graphite Damar resin on paper Aluminium
Untitled, Still life 72 X 102 cm Graphite Damar resin on paper / Aluminium
Forbidden Fruit, 72 X 102 cm Pastoral, 72 X 102 cm Graphite Damar resin on paper 2026
Christopher Cook
Pastoral, 72 X 102 cm Graphite Damar resin on paper / Aluminium
Still Life with Pangolin, Pastoral, 72 X 102 cm, graphite, Damar resin on paper / Aluminium
Reconnaissance. Pastoral, 72 X 102 cm
Graphite Damar resin on paper / Aluminium
Untitled, Still life 72 X 102 cm Graphite Damar resin on paper / Aluminium .
Christopher Cook was born in Yorkshire, England, and studied Literature at Exeter University and MA Painting at the Royal College of Art, London. He took up an Italian Government scholarship for three years to work in Bologna, where his colour paintings of this period featured in high-profile exhibitions such as From Bacon to Now at the Palazzo Vecchio in
Florence, and Eros in Albion at the Casa Masaccio, and in solo shows in London.
Two years in India changed his painting approach to a more haptic practice in which sand drawings inspired a switch to monochrome graphite. These works were soon exhibited internationally, especially in the USA through Mary Ryan Gallery, and entered major collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; the Yale Centre for British Art; and in the UK, the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The ‘graphites’ received major prizes in the UK, including at the prestigious John Moores Liverpool. Notable solo show include Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan; Today Art Museum, Beijing; Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany; and York Art Gallery, UK, in which meditations on Dutch 17th-century still life painting were exhibited alongside masterworks from York’s collection and loans from the National Gallery, London.
This theme reemerged during a residency in Taiwan (2023), works from which were exhibited at Chini Gallery, Taipei in 2024. A retrospective of eight exhibitions with Mary Ryan Gallery was held in New York in 2026.
ChristopherCook CV
Solo exhibitions
2026 Mary Ryan Gallery, New York
2024 Chini Gallery, Taipei
2020 Sunny Art Centre London
Saul Hay Gallery Manchester
Group Exhibitions
2026 Contemporary British Painting Prize, Sheffield and London
Another World, Frestonian Gallery, London
2025 John Moores Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery
2024 Paradise Lost The Underground Stream, South Devon, UK
2022 Paper after All, Royal Cambrian Academy Conwy
2020 Recent Acquisitions, York Art Gallery
New Light, Scarborough Art Gallery (and tour)
Awards (graphite works only)
2020 Jackson’s Painting Prize, First Prize, (Still Life)
2019 Sunny Art Prize, First prize.
2017 New Light First Prize
2013 Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Liguria, Italy
2009 PAS Scholar, British School at Rome
2006 British Council Award, Beijing
2005 Daiwa Award, Yokohama Triennial
2004 British Council Award, University of Memphis, USA
2001 Arts Council England Residency, Eden Project Cornwall UK
2000 AHRC award, Bundanon Trust, Australia
1999 John Moores XXI Prizewinner
Collections
British Museum
Cleveland Museum USA
Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge
Haugesund Billedgalleri, Norway
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
Minneapolis Museum of Art
MIMA, Middlesbrough
Nicosia Municipal Art Centre, Cyprus
Today Art Museum Beijing
Victoria and Albert Museum
Yale Center for British Art, USA
Yokohama Museum of Art
York Art Gallery
