Zoe Koke
Zoe Koke
Born in Calgary, Canada, Koke now lives and works in Los Angeles. Since receiving her MFA from UCLA in 2019, Koke has gone on to be the subject of several solo and group exhibitions at Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich; Franz Kaka, Toronto; and Alice Amati, London.
In Los Angeles, you can be anything you want to be. This sunny enclave of North America has shared stories with all corners of the world. Yet glamour can come at a cost, and for painter Zoe Koke it’s the woes of capitalism and its effect on the collective psyche that ruminate on her canvases.
Koke moved from Montreal to Los Angeles as a student attending UCLA. Trained in photography, Koke moved into writing, painting, and shooting film. Materiality and the disintegration of nature have guided her practice; a stance that stems from the hollow promises offered by global capitalism, perceived gender roles, and the American Dream.
Although rooted in the landscape, Koke captures this historical subject through a pool of abstraction in her paintings. The grit of urban Los Angeles is rendered in a succession of thrashing brushstrokes; the energy of neighbouring delights such as Arroyo Seco Park—America’s oldest freeway—distilled into her concise and powerful frames.
Koke has a keen affinity to the personal and spiritual nature of landscape, a subject that has long been addressed by a strong lineage of female painters such Agnes Pelton and Georgia O’Keeffe. It is in this connection between spiritualism and art championed by these historic painters that Koke has found solace.
In Los Angeles, you can be anything you want to be. This sunny enclave of North America has shared stories with all corners of the world. Yet glamour can come at a cost, and for painter Zoe Koke it’s the woes of capitalism and its effect on the collective psyche that ruminate on her canvases.
Koke moved from Montreal to Los Angeles as a student attending UCLA. Trained in photography, Koke moved into writing, painting, and shooting film. Materiality and the disintegration of nature have guided her practice; a stance that stems from the hollow promises offered by global capitalism, perceived gender roles, and the American Dream.
Although rooted in the landscape, Koke captures this historical subject through a pool of abstraction in her paintings. The grit of urban Los Angeles is rendered in a succession of thrashing brushstrokes; the energy of neighbouring delights such as Arroyo Seco Park—America’s oldest freeway—distilled into her concise and powerful frames.
Koke has a keen affinity to the personal and spiritual nature of landscape, a subject that has long been addressed by a strong lineage of female painters such Agnes Pelton and Georgia O’Keeffe. It is in this connection between spiritualism and art championed by these historic painters that Koke has found solace.