Sherry Frontenac Hotel, 6565 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33141
Dates of Exhibition: November 14, 2024 through December 12, 2024
Patricia L. Cooke is a Miami-based mixed media artist, born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cooke earned her BFA in 2011 from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. In 2015, Cooke was awarded a Graduate Teaching Assistant Scholarship from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida where she earned her MFA in Sculpture in 2018. Cooke currently holds the position of Lecturer of Sculpture at the University of Miami.
Notable group exhibitions include Pathways 2024: The Carlos Malamud Prize (Rollins Museum of Art and University of Central Florida Gallery – Orlando, FL), Don’t Drag Me Down (the Koehnline Museum – Des Planes, IL), Twisted Strands – Voices with Common Threads (Edge Zones – Miami, FL), Artist Celebrate Our Planet with Care (DORCAM – Doral, FL), and Past Lives: Patricia Cooke & Joe McDonough (Cameron Gallery at the Scrap Exchange – Durham, NC). Cooke was nominated for the Joan Mitchell Fellowship in 2023 and 2024 and has been awarded grants including the Miami-Dade Artist Access Grant and the Miami-Dade Individual Artist Grant.
Artist Patricia Cooke’s “Anodyne” praises the healing power of South Florida’s mangrove systems. Mangroves are a crucial facet of the South Florida landscape. Their complicated root systems provide filtration and distribution for both fresh and saltwater, as well as acting as attachment sites to marine organisms that filter water with their bodies — a double source of healing. The quilts of “Anodyne” strive to recreate the unique view of both roots disappearing under the water’s surface and the menagerie tangle of the roots themselves. The use of calming pastel colors supports a similar calming experience of kayaking or canoeing through the mangroves, offering a sense of tranquility knowing that these ancient trees are hard at work protecting and healing our world.