Biography
Genna Medina-Cook was born and raised in South Boston, MA. Medina-Cook, affectionately known as “MC '' to few peers, is a master of her own ceremonies. Throughout her career, she always acknowledges where she came from and holds the artistic spaces she has been through close to her heart. Genna received her undergraduate degree in Painting from the Maine College of Art & Design in 2022. Her painting practice seeks to find a balance between using representational and abstraction to depict aspects of identity, behavior, and belonging. Her work takes on an immersive quality that extends off of the surface into space with the viewer.
“My creative work is a sociological endeavor, harnessing the energy from mundane activity, interpersonal interactions, internalized emotions, and shared cultural phenomena. It's my way of translating why people do what they do, seeking to hold a mutual understanding amongst folks from many different walks of life, no matter the circumstances they come from.”
Artist Statement
The world I see is full of color, vibrancy and character. The world I wish to depict is not confined by the four edges of a canvas or wood. In its longevity, experiences are weighed in happiness, nostalgia, pain, and forbidden glories. You can’t put words in the same expression they are replayed in your brain. The fleeting use of language in these spaces solidifies the contextual ground that paint cannot depict. My work echoes the essence of its meaning through the collaging of raw materials and the countless hues that comprise the paintings that came before it.
My interest in realizing physical connections through paint and the roots of subject matter is further fueled through incorporating sculptural methods. Connecting items that hold conceptual significance to my content instills the foundation of my work, and echo the recognizable aspects that the viewer can identify. By expanding the surface of my work from its two dimensional base, I want to invite the viewer into the given scenario my art holds in visual dialogue. Through combining paint, and raw materials, this integration provides a tactile extension to my paintings that seek to understand given parts of our human experience.