Catie Cook is a painter based in Saint Louis, MO. Raised in Gainesville, GA, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Georgia in Painting, Art History, and Museum Studies in 2023. In 2025 she earned her Masters of Fine Arts from The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in St. Louis, Missouri. 

 

Cook examines her experiences of girlhood in the American South through the lens of performance. As the daughter of a scenic designer, her paintings reflect the language of theatre—idealized imagery and carefully constructed scenes that, though imitating reality, often feel eerie and artificial. Through the strangeness of a drape of fabric or the illusion of stage lighting, there is a lingering reminder that her characters are performing for the viewer’s gaze—a feeling emblematic of the female experience. Inspired by her upbringing in Georgia, surrounded by the pageantry of the church, debutante culture, and beauty pageants, Cook’s paintings harness the symbol of the stage as a metaphor for the performativity of gender. The Dalmatian, a recurring character in her work, explores parallel performances of beauty between show dogs and Southern women. As her dogs snarl, pose, and leap across staged scenes reminiscent of the theatre, Cook weaves uncanny narratives wrought with themes of control, beauty, and artifice.