Brett Cook

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT BRETT COOK

My work cohesively integrates the breadth and depth of my diverse experiences with art, education, science, and spirituality. For over two decades, I have produced installations, exhibitions, curricula, and events widely across the United States, and internationally. My museum work features drawing, painting, photography, and elaborate installations that make intimately personal experiences universally accessible. My public projects typically involve community workshops and collaborative art, along with music, performance, and food to create a more fluid boundary between art making, daily life, and healing. Teaching and public speaking are extensions of my social practice that involve communities in dialogue to generate experiences of reflection and insight. I have taught at all academic levels in a variety of subjects, and published in academic journals at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Columbia, and Stanford Universities. In 2009, I published Who Am I In This Picture: Amherst College Portraits with Wendy Ewald and Amherst College Press. I have been able to pursue my practice because of generous honors and opportunities, including the Lehman Brady Visiting Professorship at Duke University and UNC – Chapel Hill, the Richard C. Diebenkorn Fellowship at the San Francisco Art Institute, and residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME, the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, Art Omi, NY, and the Headlands Center for the Arts, CA. My work is in private and public collections including the Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery, the Walker Art Center, and Harvard University. In 2012 I traveled to Lagos, Nigeria as part of The U.S Department of State\'s smARTpower Initiative. Specialties: Education, pedagogy, portraiture, contemplative studies, mindfulness, meditation, painting, drawing, photography, installation, social practice, collaboration, community building, public art, murals, healing.