Night Drive

March 16th through May 11th, 2024
Opening reception from 4:00 to 7:00pm on Saturday, March 16th
Artist Walkthrough of the exhibition at 4:30pm, Saturday, March 16th

Best Western is pleased to announce Night Drive, a solo exhibition of new work by Carrie Cook.

In this group of seven paintings, made between 2023 and 2024, Cook asserts the tension of abstract gestures that unravel representational forms. The artist invites the viewer to consider stacked layers of time and desire. Asking, how does one hold conflicting desires or unrealized possibilities? How does one manage both suspension and movement? Through the paintings, Cook creates scenes that merge the memory of the sleepy gulf coasts of her past with the landscape of the LA freeways of her present. She invites the viewer to take the passenger seat in her depictions of liminal states, created during her late night studio practice.

Cook’s paintings take the viewer through a slow, cinematic dream that lead, instead of to climax, to a sense of bewilderment. The paintings trick us into a familiar story that gradually dissolves from a sure footing into a painterly dissonance, like a furnace burning itself. In Cook’s paintings scenes transmute; blurred lights at night while speeding, an obscured landscape through the drizzle of an atmospheric river on the windshield. The journey unfolds from a static image, stuck in time, but also in motion. A lone, salted margarita with a scribbled phone number across a cocktail napkin offers a mediation on the function and dysfunction of desire.

Carrie Cook, born in Nashville, TN, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She holds a MFA from the University of Houston and a BFA from the University of Texas, Austin. Her work has been exhibited at Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago, Baik Gallery, Seoul, CFHILL, Stockholm, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, Make Room, Los Angeles, Tyler Park Presents, Los Angeles, Below Grand, New York, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, and Blaffer Museum of Art, Houston and featured in publications such as Bat City Review, Art Maze Magazine and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. 

Night Drive is on view March 16th, 2024 through May 11th, 2024. Opening reception from 5:00 to 7:00pm on Saturday, March 16th. Artist Walkthrough will be at 4:30pm. Carrie Cook will be present for the opening reception.

Best Western would like to thank the artist, Carrie Cook, for her trust and collaboration in the making of Night Drive. This project is supported by the Fulcrum Fund, a grant program of 516 ARTS made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Meow Wolf Fouuundation.

Best Western hours are Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm and otherwise open by appointment for the run of the exhibition. Please contact Shane Tolbert & James Sterling Pitt by email at office@westernbest.org with questions or to schedule an appointment.