WILL COTTON

Will Cotton (b. 1965, Melrose, Massachusetts) attended Cooper Union, New York City (BFA 1987), spending a semester at the École Regionale des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France. He studied for a year at the New York Academy of Art (1988). His paintings have been included in numerous group shows throughout the United States and Europe, and have been the subject of solo shows at Mary Boone Gallery, New York City (2004, 2000-2002); Jablonka Galerie, Köln, Germany (2001); I-20 Gallery, New York City (1999); and Silverstein Gallery, New York City (1998, 1996, 1995). Cotton lives and works in New York City.

"When I began working with confectionary landscapes as subject matter, I wanted to approach the idea like an explorer in a new and strange place. I always start a painting by first building a maquette in the studio. This allows me to look at the scenery and be surprised by what I see. Building candyland is a way of being in it, of making it real for me. The maquettes don't survive, they melt and deteriorate and rot, so the painting becomes a record of a place which was real but has ceased to exist. Like the mythological 'land of Cockaigne,' candyland is an imagined utopia whose exact geographical location is elusive. It's the idea of a land of plenty where all is pleasure and there's no such thing as work. It's about imagining the possibility of constant indulgence."

Will Cotton Chocolate Thaw, 2001 Oil on linen 75 x 100 in. (190.5 x 254 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery, New York, New York     Will Cotton Swept Away, 2000 Oil on linen 68 x 80 in. (172.7 x 203.2 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery, New York, New York     Will Cotton Root Beer Swamp, 2002 Oil on linen 48 x 60 in. (121.9 x 152.4 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone Gallery, New York, New York

Will Cotton
Brittle House, 2000
Oil on linen
36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone
Gallery, New York, New York
 
 

Will Cotton
Flanpond, 2002
Oil on linen
71 x 71 in. (180.3 x 180.3 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone
Gallery, New York, New York
 
 

Will Cotton
Love Me, 1999-2000
Oil on linen
96 x 120 in. (243.8 x 304.8 cm)
Courtesy of the artist and Mary Boone
Gallery, New York, New York

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