Ginger Williams Cook
Abundance of Apollo: The Celestial Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes of Greek Mythology"First Saturdays" Opening Receptions - 4 January + 1 February 5-9 PM
December 9, 2024 – February 8, 2025
Pull Quote
The techniques in her artwork combine washes of acrylic paint that take shape with colored pencils and pastels, serving as a visual conversation between two hemispheres – the creator and the corrector dancing through a changing process. The common thread in her work is emotional attachment to physical objects, and the power nostalgia has to unlock a memory.
Biography
G I N G E R W I L L I A M S C O O K | | | @gingerwilliamscook
[lives & works - Jackson, MS ::: b. 1981, Jackson, MS]
GINGER WILLIAMS COOK is a painter, published illustrator, and arts educator based in Jackson, MS. She is the solo exhibition prize recipient from the 2023 No Dead Artists International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Art at Ferrara Showman Gallery in New Orleans. Selected works from that exhibition landed in Artsy’s “Curators’ Picks: Emerging Showcase”.
Cook’s work has been featured internationally in exhibitions, television, and brand packaging. During Women’s history Month, Cook’s illustration was selected for a limited run of Stacy’s Pita Chips, benefitting Step Up Women’s Network in 2017. The campaign led by Goodby Silverstein & Partners earned a Bronze Lion in Design at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Cook shared her personal experience of grief in HBO Documentary’s The (Dead Mothers) Club, which tells the story of three women who lost their mothers, structured around a series of interviews featuring Rosie O’Donnell, Molly Shannon, and Jane Fonda. The film’s theatrical poster featured Cook’s painting, which likens the loss of a parent to phantom limb syndrome. Press highlights following the premier prompted articles in The New York Times, Newsweek and a live interview on The Katie Couric Show.
Artist Statement
The setting of Fidus Amor and Flora & Zephyr draws inspiration from Baroque-style landscapes with an applied field of color harkening to works by Maurice Noble and Chuck Jones – creators of the background animation design in Looney Tunes. The subjects are modeled after 1700s French and German porcelain figurines for their gestural and sculptural qualities. I love capturing the opaque, pastel glazes and further enjoy examining how antique porcelain has visible hairline fractures as a natural release of tension within the material.
The drapery within Unviable depicts the emotional tension of losing bodily autonomy as a woman facing decisions about her body and reproductive health. It is a voyeuristic invasion of privacy that hangs heavy and layered. The use of drapery as a visual device echoes the symbolism used in Neoclassicism and the uncanny characteristics implemented in Magic Realism, particularly the work of Honoré Sharrer.
CV
Education
BFA | Painting and Drawing, William Carey College, Gulfport, MS, 2004
Group Exhibitions
2023 | No Dead Artists, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2017 | The Self Portrait, Art Lovers Soiree, Fischer Galleries, Ridgeland, MS
2013 | Artists by Artists, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
2011 | M2 Gallery, Little Rock, AR
I Love the 80s, Storytellers Ball, MS Arts Center, Jackson, MS
2010 | Nudes & Figures, Fischer Galleries, Jackson, MS
2009 | Figurative Work, Guthrie Contemporary, New Orleans, LA
Motown, MS Arts Center, Jackson, MS
Nudes & Figures, Fischer Galleries, Jackson, MS
2008 | Paris Expo, Highland Fine Art Brokers, Jackson, MS
5x7, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
The Moe Show, Guthrie Contemporary, New Orleans, LA
Prospect 1, Guthrie Contemporary, New Orleans, LA
Nudes and Figures, Fischer Galleries, Jackson, MS
2007 | Summer Solstice, District Fine Arts, Washington DC
New American Talent 22, Arthouse, Austin, TX
Mississippi Artists, Brick Gallery, Clarksdale, MS
Displaced, The Found Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006 | Katrina Remembered, DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Katrina Remembered, District Fine Arts, Washington DC
Solo Exhibitions
2010 | Mississippi Arts Center, Jackson, MS
Highlights
2022 | Mississippi State Arts Conference Presenter
Keynote Speaker, MS Whole Schools Leadership Retreat at The MAX, Meridian, MS
2018 | Published illustrator of The Artful Evolution of Hal & Mal’s, University Press of Mississippi, book tour and art exhibition
2017 | Selected Illustrator for Stacy’s Stands With You to benefit StepUP Women’s Network, featured on ltd. packaging of Stacy’s Pita Chips, campaign design by Goodby Silverstein & Partners
2017 | Literary Map of Mississippi, illustration, permanent installation at the Mississippi Library
Commission, Jackson, MS
2014 | The Dead Mothers Club, HBO Documentary, featured interviews and poster artwork, Smoke & Apple Films
CV CONT'D
Awards
2023 | No Dead Artists Solo Exhibition Prize recipient at Ferrara Showman Gallery
2022 | Artist Mini-Grant, Mississippi Arts Commission
2020 | Rapid Response Grant, Mississippi Arts Commission
2017 | Bronze Lion, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Package Design
Goodby Silverstein & Partners campaign for Stacy’s Pita Chips
2016 | Artist Mini-Grant, Mississippi Arts Commission
2012 | Outstanding Art Educator of the Year, Museum Division, MS Art Education Assoc.
2006 | Creative Artist Grant, Greater Jackson Arts Council, Jackson, MS
Press
2018 | NPR’s Book Concierge featuring The Artful Evolution of Hal & Mal’s, November
2017 | AJ+, featured illustration on social media accounts for International Women’s Day, March 8
2014 | Time Magazine article featuring The Dead Mothers Club HBO Documentary, May Katie, tv, Live interview by Katie Couric, about The Dead Mothers Club HBO Doc
2013 | Mississippi Roads, tv, Landrum’s Homestead episode, featured interview, MPBTV broadcast Natural Talent Issue, The Jackson Free Press
2009 | The Art Issue, Portico Magazine
2004 | Grounded Ginger, cover story, The Jackson Free Press
