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David Cook: Figurative Sculptures
Ongoing Exhibition

Yello Gallery
1630 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60647
Telephone: 773/235-9731

Certain 'decorator crabs' are noted for plucking objects from their environment to use in constructing carry-about props as camouflage.

Since even before Hieronymous Bosch in the Fifteenth century, through to H.R.Giger in graphics and Dean Koontz in cinema-adapted best-sellers, imagination has joined human elements to objects in images ranging from horrored damnation to playful whimsy.

Where life permits biology to do this... the result is termed a 'chimera.'

David Cook's sculptures are chimerical. It is a genre with a long and resilient history, and a wide resonance in contemporary culture. While still in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Cook had produced a body of figurative paintings and, in 1991, he received a warm reception when he exhibited his "woman series" at the Bogotti Gallery. He later became a part of the Chicago Image School. With his move to Chicago in 1992, the fact of his living and working in an industrial area meant that his long walks took him past scrap yards and wrecking sites. This, during his search for a new avenue of expression, turned his efforts toward a sculpture employing unconventional materials. In an artist's statement, he explained: "I like using contrasting materials that seem both strong and fragile. These are the qualities in human nature that I feel intuitively."

Cook begins with the materials that attract him a having a potential for a work, and proceeds to build upon the sculpture with wiring and plaster. He often creates patinas to effect coloration or the illusion of natural weathering. The finished pieces, however, are designed as indoor art; they are not prepared to withstand Chicago winters.

Their chimerical nature notwithstanding, many of Cook's pieces do present an eerie grace and an illusion of motion. The cable and heavy wire elements often function as line work drawn three-dimensionally in the air. There are the nuances of dance and even flight in his posing of some pieces -- this is a quality that arises from the instincts of the artist.

The artist has expressed a daily, changing relationship to each of his pieces. This is as should be -- the work is good. I do have to admit personally that I feel these are works that I prefer going somewhere to see. I'm not as certain that I could live with them daily. It is their very chimerical nature which uneases me. This is a response and a judgement each makes for oneself.

The artist has said that "The way I work comes from an instinctive place where words and intellect are not important. My only concern is to give each sculpture a life of its own." Even in the stillest space they have life. They move. And they speak to the viewer's imagination. If you visit Yello Gallery, you can see for yourself.

One of David Cook's sculptures was featured in the 1998 Curator's Choice Selections of Chicago's Around The Coyote Art Festival . Yello Gallery represents David Cook and his sculptures can be viewed there.

--G. Jurek Polanski

Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net.