statement

My work is a contemplation of how the physical design of our surroundings can influence social behavior and also offer insight to cultural practices that inform the nature of such designs. In choosing the subject matter of my imagery, I focus my sights on the fringe of suburbia, attempting to locate dynamic tensions existing between the landscape and the homogenous developments quietly dominating its topography. I chose to reject the idealized depiction of subject matter inherent in the history of American landscape painting. Instead of merely creating pleasant pictures, I use the history of both painting and landscape to project a subversive series of questions to viewers; What spaces do I want to live in? What dictates the spaces I live in by default? What responsibility (if any) do I take for the reality of these spaces?

bio

born: 1985, St. Louis, Missouri

education

University of Missouri-Columbia, BFA, 2009

selected awards/honors

Graduate Teaching Assistantship, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 2011
Graduate Tuition Scholarship, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 2011

selected publications

Manifest Gallery, 1st International Painting Annual, Cincinnati, OH 2011
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, 2010 Contemporary Realism Biennial, Fort Wayne, IN p. 27, 2010
Columbia Daily Tribune, Niche: Jake Crook, Columbia, MO, 2009

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Looking Over the Overlooked, Two person show with Matthew Ballou, Moberly Area Community College, Moberly, MO, June 6-July 29 2011
Jacob Crook, Boone County National Bank Gallery, Columbia, Missouri, Mar 25-Apr 30 2010

selected group shows

Manifest Gallery, 1st International Painting Annual, Cincinnati, Ohio 2011
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, 2010 Contemporary Realism Biennial, Fort Wayne, Indiana 2010
Bradley University,"What‚s Next" National Juried Undergraduate Exhibition, Peoria, Illinois 2010