Night Waves is a dual exhibition pairing Casey Cook and Matthew F Fisher, two artists who translate the world around them by creating surreal, highly-graphic scenes that are enigmatic yet still true reflections of the intricacies of modern life. Cook and Fisher both shift expected notions of gender identity– Casey Cook delivers large-format, aggressively sexual canvases with sharp-edged lines and punk flair, while Matthew F Fisher meditates on the perpetual allure of nature in easel-scale paintings rendered in soft blue tones, pastel pinks and cream hues.

A repetition of hard geometric patterning combined with a seductive palette abstracts and diffuses the blunt erotic imagery presented in Casey Cook’s new works. Disembodied legs are wide-spread and emanating architectural forms suggestive of phallic towers and/or potent female sexual energy. Spiraling sea shells, bananas and blossoming flowers are re-contextualized into urgent emblems of the fluidity of human desire in a sea of controlled intimacy in the digital age.    

Whether depicting ocean waves, electric sunsets or hyperreal creatures, Matthew F Fisher’s odes to the inexplicable beauty and inherent strangeness of life are disarming in their tranquil yet visionary presentation of the world around us. Taming uncontrollable forces in nature is a dominant aspect of Fisher’s work, which is achieved by removing the indelible movement and action that is key to our planet. Nature’s actions are frozen, as if stuck in time, resulting in a stillness that approaches Zen meditation despite layers of obsessive brushwork and highly rendered forms. 

Casey Cook (b.1971) lives and works in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and received her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and an MFA from The University of California. Cook has been exhibiting since 1995, with her most recent solo show being Geometric Desire at Light Art and Design in Chapel Hill, NC in 2015. 

Matthew F Fisher (b. 1976) received a BFA from Columbus College of Fine Art and an MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles and has had recent solo exhibitions at Johansson Projects in Oakland, CA (2018) and Taymour Grahne (2017).