Judy Cooke’s exhibition, Form First, highlights the artist’s exploration of shape and dimensionality through new minimalist wall constructions. Spatial relationships are central concerns to the artist, and precise considerations inform the physicality of her artworks. Extending only two inches from the wall, these wood and aluminum shapes cast distinct shadows while painted edges reiterate their “objectness” and formal presence.
Cooke’s artworks merge painting and sculpture with additions of bright pops of color and dynamic lines that encourage the viewer’s eye to move in all directions. In the vertical artwork, Staircase, 2021, brilliant orange shapes read like a statistical scale with marks that intermittently climb and fall. Cooke’s recent works appear like geometries within geometries. As they engage and reflect the space around them, the works subtly communicate ideas of containment and expansion.
