Otherworldly objects

Combining nocturnal hues with cinematic composition and a deft touch, LA-based artist Carrie Cook makes paintings that will change the way you see the glass in your hand. Her latest solo show, “Second Chakra” at Goldfinch, is a seven-piece celebration of everyday things, both in their superficial appearance and their symbolic significance. These aren’t flashy, fluorescent eye candies indebted to the Instagram era. They’re quiescent, satin-sheened meditations on life. In short, they’re paintings doing what painting does best.

Carrie Cook, Two Candles, 2022Courtesy Goldfinch

Have a look at the mysterious blue-green “Two Plates, Two Cups.” Half-hidden in twilight, it comes across as a straightforward scene of fruit-filled saucers and wine-stained tumblers. An unremarkable slice of life that anyone who’s ever had a Cutie and a cheap bottle of Carlo Rossi can relate to. But in Cook’s hands, these are objects possessed. Hanging bizarrely in midair, they cast colored shadows, spinning and pulsating with an otherworldly, expressionistic quality. Suddenly, viewers find themselves confronted by a phantom image in the heart of the uncanny valley. Throughout the show, Cook conjures abstract contours from realistic shapes, pushing visual and psychological tensions to a rolling boil. And just as quickly, she brings us back to the kitchen table, bottle in hand, glass at the ready.

“Second Chakra”Through 2/25: Fri-Sat noon-4 PM, Goldfinch, 319 N. Albany, goldfinch-gallery.com

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