Jordan Cook
Jordan Cook is an artist and art educator, born in 1995, who was born and raised in Harlow, Essex. He studied at The Royal Drawing School and now works from a studio at The Gibberd Garden. For Jordan, the stripped back nature of charcoal onto paper is the most immediate way of responding to the world around him, as the ease with which it can be erased and re-drawn allows him to move with his living subject matter. Working on site, through both slow and fast observation, he gathers an understanding of space, light and rhythm, along with an appreciation of the human side of how a place is built.
Much of his work centres on Harlow, the post-war new town in which he grew up. Re-Drawing Harlow, shown at the Gibberd Gallery with public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England, is a visual, historical and autobiographical record of the town as it changes around him, documenting a moment before its latest regeneration. 'City' Returned, made for the Gibberd Gallery, reimagines Gerda Rubinstein's sculpture 'City' in its original setting at the centre of Michael Neylan's Bishopsfield estate, pairing the sculptor's model with a large-scale painting of the estate. For School For A New Town, which marked the demolition of the original Burnt Mill Academy building, he made a large-scale commissioned drawing of the school he attended as a pupil, working in the studio from small studies made on site and combining sweeping charcoal marks with vivid cobalt-blue pastel.
Temple City grew out of a three-month teaching residency in India with the Royal Drawing School, during which he tutored at the Institute of Fine Arts in Modinagar and, between teaching days, drew the country's dense urban landscapes, sacred temples and sun-scorched rooftops in charcoal and soft pastel. His practice also extends into animation, including Trigon Sequence, a film made from 122 drawings.
Alongside his own work he runs welcoming, non-competitive drawing workshops built on a 'learn by doing' approach and a commitment to accessible drawing education, frequently with schools, residency programmes and local charities, among them The Rock Retreat residency programme in Gibraltar, Pemberley Academy, Burnt Mill Academy and Matipo Arts in Harlow. He has also taught life drawing at Parndon Mill Studios.
