Ellen Kooi (born November 7, 1962, in Leeuwarden), is a Dutch artist and photographer, who lives and works in Haarlem, Netherlands. She makes scenographic, theatrical imagery merging landscapes and figures–in the tradition of the city's landscape painters from the Dutch Golden Age.[1][2]
Kooi graduated from the Academie Minerva, in Groningen, in 1987; she was an artist in residency, and completed post-graduate studies, at the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten, in Amsterdam, from 1993 to 1994. Within her body of work, themes of humans' intimate interactions with their surrounding natural world are explored. From unsettling landscapes, often populated only by young adults; to reassuring scenes of soothing serenity, and shelter; and serendipitous escapes; her subjects–nature and actor–are dramatically staged.[3] Her work has been acquired by the Frans Hals Museum,[4][5] the Fries Museum,[6] and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all in the Netherlands, as well as the Collection Hermès, in Luxembourg, and the Borusan Contemporary, in Turkey.[7]
She is represented by Torch Gallery, in Amsterdam.
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