Jenik Cook, Brutalist Ceramic Sculpture Vase Bronze Lustre FInish California Expressionist

Jenik Cook
Handmade ceramic vase or pot sculpture
Hand signed by the artist.
Fired clay with a luster bronze painted finish

Jenik Esterm Simonian Cook is a painter and ceramicist sculptor in the tradition of such visual theorists as Arshile Gorky, Wassily Kandinsky, and Robert Motherwell. She studied with Chalita Robinson and Alex Vilumsons. She has had a solo show at the Beatrice Wood center. Cook is renowned as an abstract-expressionist with an oeuvre that consists of figurative and abstract nude sculptures, luster pottery and paintings with acrylic, oil and watercolor. Absorbing and processing a vast range of material, from ancient languages to modern painting movements, her works convey a sense of confidence over this broad spectrum of experience. Her biomorphic modernism, shapes and lines, coupled with her bold use of color infuse her painting with richly exotic symbolism in the style of Joan Miro and Fernand Leger. Her ceramic work was influenced by the studio pottery movement and Peter Voulkos. Known for her technical brilliant and startling use of light and color, Jenik Cook incorporates a plethora of references from literature, and mythology, to landscape and personal relationships. She brings her knowledge of painting, sculpture and the arts to every piece. At its core her art is an experiment of movement, light, contemplation and ritual, each perfectly composed in order to touch the viewer on a more profound level. Early on, she took a cue from Edvard Munch whose work inspired her to put her life story in visual form. Now, Jenik’s work tells that story abstractly with a vibrancy and expression that move from the container of her picture into the viewer’s psyche. Her work is a celebration of generous form and color.