Will Cotton, “COTTON CANDY KATY”, 2010, oil on linen, 72 x 84 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery
Will Cotton (Born: 1965 in Melrose, Massachussets, US. Lives and works in New York City. Cotton helds a B.F.A from the Cooper Union. He has also studiet at the New York Academy of Art, the Academié des Beaux Arts in Rouen, France and La Napoule Art Foundation in La Napoule, France. The artist has exhibited internationally and nationally since 1995 and his works can be found in a numerous of Museums and collections. Will Cotton has recieved the Princesse Grace Foundation award for contemporary art in Monaco).
His earlier works were mainly influenced by pop-icons from the contemporary advertisements. In his later works- on the other hand, the paintings feature scenery of sweets, candy and melting ice cream in which he puts the human object to fit in. It gives an impression of an imaginary world. Often are many of these landscapes populated with nude or nearly nude pin-up style models. The artist shows great scills creating the human body with its setting. The artist himself has described his paintings in this way:
“These paintings are all about a very specific place…………..It’s a utopia where all desire is fulfilled all the time, meaning ultimately that there can be no desire, as there is no desire without lack.”
Will Cotton, “CONSUMING FOLLY”, 2009-10, oil on linen, 72×96 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery
In 2009, Cotton installed a pop-up french bakery at Partner & Spade in Manhatten, NY. Here the confections and baked goods which he used as references in his art where baked on site and sold. The idea behind the project was to let the audience see how the artist worked surrounded by the aroma of freshly baked sweet. This would make an utterly way to sense or experience his art.
The artist was the Artistic Director for Katy Perry’s muisc video “California Gurls” in 2010. This was bades on the world of Cotton and his paintings. He created original props for the set, with a three-dimensional Candy Land game board where he used real baked goods and sweets.
Will Cotton, “DELICIOUS”, 2008, polystyrene, acrylic polymer, pigment, gypsum, 30x20x20 inches.
Will Cotton “Mona” 2007, oil on paper, 40 x 30 inches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4&feature=relmfu
For more information, contact:
MARY BOONE GALLERY
745 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10151
GALERIE DANIEL TEMPLON
30 rue Beaubourg
75003 Paris, France
Jablonka Galerie
Lindenstrasse 19
D-50674 Cologne, Germany
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