Born in Sydney in 1960, Sue Cooke emigrated to New Zealand with
her family as a teenager. She attended the University of
Canterbury, graduating in 1984 with a Diploma of FIne Arts with
Honours. Cooke began exhibiting her paintings and printed work in
Christchurch and in 1987 was awarded a QEII Arts Council
scholarship, which enabled her to undertake a study tour to the US,
UK, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, where she immersed
herself in local art and absorbed the finer points of specific
painting and printmaking production techniques. Cooke returned in
1990 to take up a position as Artist in Residence at the Sarjeant
Art Gallery in Wanganui. Cooke has since divided her career between
exhibition, production and tutoring in the arts.
Cooke's work is often defined by her raw and monumental approach
to the depiction of landscape. Her attention to the minutiae of
detail and her mastery of various production techniques allows
Cooke to render the evocative aspects of her subjects with stunning
clarity: the harsh ruggedness and isolation of central New Zealand
springs to life with exceptional vividity in
her Ruapehu series, while her Nudes
and Nude as a
Landscape series explore the contours of the human body
as a type of physical topography.
In December 2006 Cooke realised a long-held dream, spending two
weeks in the Antarctic drawing, painting and collecting visual
material. The first results of her work were exhibited in 2008 as
Blizzard in a Dark Landscape and show a pristine and
awe-inspiring environment rendered in Cooke's inimitable style as a
raw melange of tar-black seas set in stark contrast with
the pure white of the snow-blanketed landscape and the resonant
turquoise and ultramarine tones of the glacial ice that underpins
the entire continent. Such was the depth of her inspiration that
Cooke has since completed two further series of works from her
journeys to Antarctica.
Cooke lives in Wanganui with her family and continues to produce
work for public exhibitions and private commissions alike. Her work
is held in major public collections including the Dunedin Public
Art Gallery, New Zealand Embassy in Rome and New Zealand High
Commissions in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as local and
international private collections.