Born in 1962, Kooi was trained at the Academie Minerva in Groningen, before completing a doctorate at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, in Amsterdam. She appeared in exhibi - tions throughout the ’90, but her breakthrough came in the 2000s with solo and group exhibitions which travelled the world. La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Torch Gallery (Amsterdam), Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris), Catharine Clark Gallery (San Francis - co), PPOW Gallery (New York), Beaumontpublic (Luxembourg), Centre d’Art Tecla Sala (Barcelona) and Borusan Sanat (Istanbul) are only some of the galleries that have exhibited her works. To achieve the level of emotional intensity she seeks in the mod - els, Kooi spends most of her time working with them, finding the best poses and expressions, developing choreographies and postshoot digital manipulations. It would not be wrong to seek traces of her ‘playful’ approach towards photography in her former career as a theatre and performance photographer. Acting is a major source of inspiration in Kooi’s stories, probably because of her passion for drama. Her focus on stories and narration, by incorporating prac - tical knowledge on performance, suggests that her creative process also feeds on the flukes of the mind. If we were to embark on a men - tal journey, it would be impossible to tell how much time we would spend on true stories and their reimagined versions, and how much on dreams and fantasy. In her images, which give the impression that memory is constantly recreated, Kooi is probably seeking an answer to this question. Taking her time, playing with possibilities…
