Nigel Cooke talks about what inspires and influences his practise.
Manchester-born and London-based Nigel Cooke’s paintings dwell on the minutiae of decay and dissolution, creating surreal, impossible scenes with scientific accuracy. His landscapes are littered with derelict buildings, bits of refuse and debris, skulls and locusts. He is interested in the history of painting as a kind of dictionary of ideals that can be ransacked as completely as possible, with all the characteristics of painting simultaneously represented, as though the whole past lives of the medium were flashing before its eyes. His painting references graffiti and Flemish still lives, abstraction and photo-realism, occurring all at the same time.