The practice of Chelsea School of Art and Goldsmiths College graduate
Greg Rook (b.1971, London) explores the rich visual history, curious
cultural politics, and often complex ideologies of those who seek to
start a new life or wish to lead alternative lifestyles. From pioneers
traveling to new continents to those wanting to stay put and live
self-sufficiently, Rook invites us to join him on his own aesthetic and
critical journey through a world of colonies, communities, communes, and
cults.
By means of figurative painting that pushes the boundaries between
realism and lyricism, Rook captures something profoundly revealing in
terms of the hopes, dreams, and successes as well as the
disappointments, disillusionment, and disasters that radical departures
from home life and mainstream society can entail. For some, utopias can
turn to dystopias, the Romantic imaginary can turn to tragedy, the
sublime can turn to misery. For those fleeing oppression, however, it
can be completely the opposite - newfound freedom, affluence, and
happiness. Rook's oeuvre, which incorporates cowboys and communists,
agrarians and anarchists, believers and book-burners, depicts how the
relationship between people and land is regularly fraught with issues,
especially when migration and a clash of mindsets or ways of life is
involved. What are brave new worlds for some are threatened old worlds
for others...
This hardback publication, the first monograph to be devoted to the work
of Greg Rook, has been co-published by Vento & Associati and Anomie to
coincide with a substantial mid-career survey exhibition of the artist's
work being staged by Vento & Associati at the Fabbrica del Vapore in
Milan in spring 2019. Featuring approximately fifty illustrations of
paintings and works on paper made by Rook since 2006, along with an
introduction by London and Milan-based critic and curator Michele
Robecchi and a significant newly commissioned essay by Matt Price, a
leading voice in the field of contemporary British painting, the
publication offers an engaging and pertinent commentary on Rook's
long-standing painterly investigation into how people choose to live
their lives.
Vento & Associati is a Milan-based company operating in global contexts
that specializes in strategic cultural communication within fields such
as public affairs, corporate and social responsibility, and cultural
fundraising. Vento & Associati manages a programme of exhibitions at the
Fabbrica del Vapore as part of the Spazi al Talento initiative of the
City of Milan.
