Keren Cook holds a Masters in Fine
Arts (with first class honours) and a Diploma in
Teaching. Cook has taught in schools as Head of Art and worked as a
lecturer at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts. She
continues to work as a visiting artist in New Zealand schools and
has worked on invitation at the Moore College of Art and Design in
Philadelphia, USA and the Scuola Di Grafica in Venice, Italy. She
is currently the owner and director of a private art school in
Auckland.
As a painter, Cook produces abstract
work full of suggestion. Forms are dimly reminiscent of naturally
occurring landscape, yet highly influenced by man-made,
architectural structures; spaces intersect as the surface is
thickly built up using masking tape to section off areas and broad
palette knife strokes to create depth and solidity.
The play of light and shade in Cook's work can be seen in the
tonal qualities of form and shadow that describes her environments
and her choice of colour is purposeful and often symbolic, used to
accent the political, social and spiritual values of the painted
subject.
Cook has been exhibiting for the past 15 years in both group and
solo exhibitions. During the course of her career she has been
awarded various grants and prizes in recognition of her work within
New Zealand. Cook continues to exhibit successfully and her works
are held in public and private collections in New Zealand,
Australia, the United States and Italy.