Catie Cook is a painter raised in Gainesville, GA. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Georgia with a BFA in Studio Art, Art History, and Museum Studies in 2023. She is currently a Master of Fine Arts Candidate at Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in St. Louis, Missouri. 

 

Cook’s paintings employ a menagerie of animals intermixed with imagery from her childhood,1950s Hollywood films, and the online subcultures of teenage girls, to question the ways in which our patriarchal society demands performance and perfection. Inspired by her upbringing in the American South, 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. Drawn to the language of theatre, she paints highly idealized imagery and carefully constructed scenes that, though imitating reality, often feel eerie and artificial. Through the strangeness of a drape of fabric or illusion of stage lighting, there is a lingering reminder that her characters are performing for your gaze —- a feeling so emblematic of the female experience.