Larry W. Cook

About

Larry W. Cook’s socially critical work includes photography, video and conceptual art. Cook’s work often examines African American identity, racial relations, and American society.

The left side of the photographic triptych All American shows a figure in red clothing that can be associated with the street gang “The Bloods” from Los Angeles; the counterpart on the right side shows a person dressed in blue – the color worn by the rival gang “The Crips”. The two gang members provide a frame for the middle photo showing a Ku Klux Klan member in a white robe. Cook is deeply concerned with the history and representation of violence in the United States. All American puts different personifications of violence on the same level and encourages the viewer to draw unexpected cross-connections.

Larry W. Cook lives and works in Washington DC. He teaches photography at Howard University in Washington DC. Cook received his MFA in 2012 from George Washington University and has since been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the USA, including the Walters Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Katzen Arts Center, and the Rush Arts Gallery. Cook is the winner of the Best of Show Award of the Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards 2017 and is nominated for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2019 of the National Gallery.