Brett Cook is an interdisciplinary artist who uses storytelling as a vehicle to distill complex ideas of transformation. Cook’s objects feature painting, drawing, photography, and installation to tell pluralistic stories that reinvent representation. His public projects involve community workshops featuring arts-integrated pedagogy with music, performance, and food to create a fluid boundary between art, daily life, and healing.

SEE(d) Creative Network visited Brett Cook’s vibrant Oakland studio on Saturday, January 25th, 2020, 3PM - 5PM where the artist engaged SEE(d) in a discussion about his socially dedicated art practice. See photos of this insightful visit.

Recognized for a history of socially relevant, community engaged projects Brett Cook was selected as cultural ambassador to Nigeria as part of the U.S. Department of State's 2012 smARTpower Initiative. Cook’s work is in private and public collections including the Smithsonian/National Portrait Gallery, the Walker Art Center, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and Harvard University. Cook published “Who Am I In This Picture: Amherst College Portraits”(2009) with Wendy Ewald and “Clouds In A Teacup”(2016) with Thich Nhat Hanh. Cook has received numerous awards, including the Lehman Brady Visiting Professorship at Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Diebenkorn Fellowship at the San Francisco Art Institute. Cook has taught at all academic levels and published in academic journals including the Maryland Institute College of Art and Harvard Universities. He is currently Senior Visual Art Fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and is collaborating with Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Destiny Arts Center on The Black (W)hole.