Nina Cooke John
Studio
Nina Cooke John is a multidisciplinary artist working across the continuum between art and architecture. The process involves an intuitive exploration of form, texture and materials through making. Architecture shows up in the analysis of the body in space. The work strives to create space that is activated by the body. Work that comes alive once it is engaged.
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Nina’s work responds to the crisis of identity of moving from one world into another. The work explores identity as a layered experience, encompassing a multiplicity of possible manifestations in the complex engagement of individuals with urban life. It investigates formal compositions that claim space for the process of self-actualization, space within which we can all be seen. Rooted firmly in the history, culture, and physical presence of a place, through careful attention to scale, material and spatial practices, the work invites engagement, reflection, and communion.
Studio Cooke John’s Shadow of A Face, the new Harriet Tubman Monument in Newark, NJ was unveiled in March 2023. The studio was awarded a 2021 AIA Merit Award for the public art installation, Point of Action, commissioned for the Flatiron public plazas in 2020 and currently on view at the Wassaic Project. Nina was named the AIANY New Perspectives honoree in 2024 and a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. Her work has also been featured in Architectural Record, The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Dwell, NBC’s Open House, and PBS NewsHour Weekend among other publications and news outlets.