Emma cc Cook:
All Chaff
Opening Saturday, Novemeber 8, 5 - 7 pm
11.08.25 - 12.13.25
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12.26 is pleased to present All Chaff, Los Angeles-based artist Emma cc Cook’s second solo exhibition at the gallery’s Los Angeles location.
Encompassing painting, sculpture, and installation, All Chaff features a survey of the artist’s techniques, traditions, and subject matter most frequently employed in her work over the last six years.
Cook limns claustrophobic, monochromatic landscapes, embedded in her handcrafted framing systems. Populated within the paintings themselves are metatextual vignettes of domestic interiors and exteriors, and painterly advertisements and propaganda.
The exhibition’s title, All Chaff, refers to the idiom “separate the wheat from the chaff,” an expression invoking social concepts of value and refuse. Chaff, the arduous, protective shell surrounding particular plant species, such as wheat, is a discarded material in industrial agricultural systems.
For Cook, All Chaff is a commentary on agricultural systems and monoculture. Conceptually, the artist encourages viewers to consider what is disposable. What is and isn’t working? What isn’t given precedence?
Labor, too, is essential in Cook’s work, physically and theoretically. The laborious skills of an artist and the hyper-intensive attention to detail are not always lauded in a fast-paced and contemporary world.
Cook’s admiration of Shaker architecture and craftsmanship is devoutly represented in All Chaff. Domestic Shaker spaces, in their utilitarian manner, mirror those of agrarian interiors through their distinctive materiality.
The line of wainscotting wrapping the gallery instills a cold illusion of domesticity in the white walled space. Rigid, pious, sterile, and neat, this furnishing embellishes the body of work with a minimalistic beauty in its craftsmanship.
All Chaff reflects the intersection of Cook’s techniques, displays, and subjects conceptualized and actualized. The exhibition considers the ambition of craft and the stakes of labor systems.
Emma cc Cook (b. 1989, Minneapolis, USA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated with a BFA in painting from the University of Minnesota and studied classical realism at the Angel Academy in Florence, Italy. Cook has presented solo and duo exhibitions at Public Gallery, London (2025); Outer Space, Concord, NH (2025); Anonymous Gallery, New York, NY (2024); 12.26, Dallas, TX (2023); Adams & Ollman, Portland, OR (2023); Public Gallery, London, England (2022); Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Et Al, Mission, San Francisco, CA (2022); Half Gallery, New York, NY (2021); among others. She has also been featured in group exhibitions at Water Street Projects, New York, NY (2024); Sixi Museum, Nanjing, China (2024); Public Gallery, London, UK (2024, 2022); Bozomag, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Richard Heller, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Pio Pico, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Almine Rech, Brussels, Belgium (2021); among others. Select residencies include New York School of the Arts at Vytacil and Campos de Gutierrez in Medellin, Colombia. Emma received the MSAB grant, the Carter Prize in Painting, and the Gay M. Grossman Memorial Scholarship.
Encompassing painting, sculpture, and installation, All Chaff features a survey of the artist’s techniques, traditions, and subject matter most frequently employed in her work over the last six years.
Cook limns claustrophobic, monochromatic landscapes, embedded in her handcrafted framing systems. Populated within the paintings themselves are metatextual vignettes of domestic interiors and exteriors, and painterly advertisements and propaganda.
The exhibition’s title, All Chaff, refers to the idiom “separate the wheat from the chaff,” an expression invoking social concepts of value and refuse. Chaff, the arduous, protective shell surrounding particular plant species, such as wheat, is a discarded material in industrial agricultural systems.
For Cook, All Chaff is a commentary on agricultural systems and monoculture. Conceptually, the artist encourages viewers to consider what is disposable. What is and isn’t working? What isn’t given precedence?
Labor, too, is essential in Cook’s work, physically and theoretically. The laborious skills of an artist and the hyper-intensive attention to detail are not always lauded in a fast-paced and contemporary world.
Cook’s admiration of Shaker architecture and craftsmanship is devoutly represented in All Chaff. Domestic Shaker spaces, in their utilitarian manner, mirror those of agrarian interiors through their distinctive materiality.
The line of wainscotting wrapping the gallery instills a cold illusion of domesticity in the white walled space. Rigid, pious, sterile, and neat, this furnishing embellishes the body of work with a minimalistic beauty in its craftsmanship.
All Chaff reflects the intersection of Cook’s techniques, displays, and subjects conceptualized and actualized. The exhibition considers the ambition of craft and the stakes of labor systems.
Emma cc Cook (b. 1989, Minneapolis, USA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She graduated with a BFA in painting from the University of Minnesota and studied classical realism at the Angel Academy in Florence, Italy. Cook has presented solo and duo exhibitions at Public Gallery, London (2025); Outer Space, Concord, NH (2025); Anonymous Gallery, New York, NY (2024); 12.26, Dallas, TX (2023); Adams & Ollman, Portland, OR (2023); Public Gallery, London, England (2022); Moskowitz Bayse, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Et Al, Mission, San Francisco, CA (2022); Half Gallery, New York, NY (2021); among others. She has also been featured in group exhibitions at Water Street Projects, New York, NY (2024); Sixi Museum, Nanjing, China (2024); Public Gallery, London, UK (2024, 2022); Bozomag, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Richard Heller, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Pio Pico, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Almine Rech, Brussels, Belgium (2021); among others. Select residencies include New York School of the Arts at Vytacil and Campos de Gutierrez in Medellin, Colombia. Emma received the MSAB grant, the Carter Prize in Painting, and the Gay M. Grossman Memorial Scholarship.