Dave Kooi
​A Biography

by Tommy Fears ~ Boston

David Kooi's works are products of a restless, promiscuous imagination: photo reliquaries transpose photographic images from David's travels and private history onto containers designed to store other inscrutable or whimsical three-dimensional objects that have captured David's singular attention; boxes, conversely, are empty, and are useless except for examining as meticulously crafted objects of distorted, idiosyncratic beauty.

Such artistic wanderlust is perhaps to be expected from David, who perfected aimlessness during long walks and drives through the landscapes of his rural Illinois childhood. Perhaps Illinois' geography is what nurtured David's ability to see and document the ordinary loveliness that exists helplessly all around us: a spiky, perfectly round seed pod; a slender, shapely glass vial filled with mysterious liquid; a child's disembodied face floating on a billboard perched against a colorless backdrop of gray, crumbling buildings.

Perhaps it was moving to England for when he was nine with his father­­a Methodist minister­­and mother that nurtured David's love for travel and for collecting odd souvenirs from his visits: a discarded plastic toy lamb from a trip to the Acropolis, for instance. (David's interest in travel persists: he has visited South Korea and Mongolia six times in the past five years.)

David stayed in Illinois long enough to earn a BS in Mass Communications and Photojournalism from Bradley University in Peoria before leaving for Connecticut, where he has lived and worked since 1987. David worked at various newspapers as a photographer before settling into his current position in the photography department at The Hartford Courant. David also recently joined the part-time faculty at Central Connecticut State University, from which he received an MS in Art Education in 1997. ​

David has been exhibiting his artwork--photographs and mixed media--for 25 years, most recently last fall as one of three featured artists selected for "Intensified Realities" at ATELIER A/E, a private gallery in New York. David's recent work has been shaped by an interest in using the principles of photography--which he has been involved with for all of his professional life--to manipulate and enhance the natural and fabricated objects he has spent a lifetime collecting.

My Creative Space

Kooi Studio - 713 Williams Street, Kewanee Illinois

Kooi Studio Kewanee Illinois

Kooi Studio Kewanee Illinois

Kooi Studio Kewanee Illinois

I love new projects!

I am most interested in creating Photo Reliquaries for the use of cremation interred in the earth or mausoleum.  

Contact Me