* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Matthew Cook is a Toledo born painter whose work focuses on portraits covered in face paint that are in the process of being washed off. A 2012 graduate of Bowling Green State University, Cook majored in 2D Art Education.
Cook’s large paintings draw parallels between the metaphorical masks people wear on a daily basis and societies need for redemption. Fascinated by the imperfections of the figure Cook’s photorealist style puts great emphasis in the rendering of surface textures of the skin and hair, face paint, and the slick sheen of water.