Michael Cook combines life and art in 'Dead Reckoning, Paintings from 2016 – 2025'

Polynesian seafarers could navigate the vast Pacific Ocean and find their way home or to other islands by reading water, currents, stars and environmental clues. From these signs, they knew approximately where they were, how to get home and where they were going. This is called dead reckoning.

This is the inspiration behind Michael Cook's current art exhibit, titled Dead Reckoning, Paintings from 2016 - 2025. His exhibit is on display through Nov. 21 at the Gebert Contemporary gallery in Santa Fe.

"I am a lifelong surfer," said Cook. "I grew up in Florida, and I always found it interesting that we could tell when another swell was coming because of how the water moved."

Cook is a professor emeritus for UNM's Art Department. Throughout Cook's tenure at UNM, he taught many classes, but he is well known for teaching color theory. His students would register early to make sure they could enroll.

"Michael's paintings often appear abstract but always have an intellectual and analytical core," said Jim Stone, distinguished professor of photography at UNM and Cook's long-time colleague. "His artwork and teaching responsibilities placed him squarely in a long tradition of painting, but he was almost single-handedly responsible for incorporating technological advances into our Art Department and moving us into the digital age. As a teacher, he was rigorous but generous and influenced a generation of student/artists who are now themselves shaping the field."

Cook has spent his entire career, spanning over four decades, creating art that prompts thought, including his own. He starts with an idea, then researches it and finally gives it a creative outlet through painting. His paintings are built over long periods of time.

For Dead Reckoning, he began researching stick maps during a trip to the Bishop Museum in Hawaii with his wife in 2014. The Polynesians created stick maps to guide their journeys.

To him, "dead reckoning" is both a nautical term and a metaphor for life, and how we navigate our own life journeys.

Michael's wife, Vera Sprunt, also an artist, is a very articulate viewer. She shared that "his work is a slow read. Every time you look at it, you see a new layer. It evolves and grows over time with you."

Cook's artwork has been exhibited across the U.S., including venues like the New Museum in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Museum School Gallery in Boston, the Albuquerque Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe.

When you walk into Gebert Contemporary, you are greeted by a larger-than-life painting, Animas River of Souls. Animas stops you in your tracks, first for its size, then for its color, and lastly because of what you can see. To Michael, color is everything. "Color is only understood in the context of other colors," he said.

As you move through the gallery, you can visit his research on Polynesian seafarers, presented in stick maps in one area, and explore the importance of New Mexico to him in another. The exhibit, comprising 31 pieces in total, also features stick maps and images of other cities and states where he has lived, such as Chicago and Florida, which have had a significant impact on his life.

His pieces are a must-see in person. Take family and friends to ponder what you can see, move around and view each piece more than once. You'll see something new each time.

Visit Gebert Contemporary's website for information.