Will Cotton

Will Cotton (born 1965 in Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S.) is an American painter. Using a refined painterly technique inspired by the Hudson River School and traditional figure painting, Cotton paints utopian landscapes and portraits, often composed of sugary desserts inhabited by female figures. His work explores our relationship with gluttony, beauty, desire and indulgence. Cotton's performative works have included a temporary French bakery at Partners & Spade, NY, and Cockaigne for Performa 2011. In 2010 Cotton served as the artistic director for the California Gurls music video for pop singer Katy Perry. He has a BFA from Cooper Union in New York City, and also studied at the Beaux Arts in Rouen, France and the New York Academy of Art. Cotton has been represented by Mary Boone Gallery in New York since 1999. He exhibits with Baldwin Gallery, Aspen; Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, France. His paintings have been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Art (2000); Seattle Art Museum (2002); Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2004); Hudson River Museum, New York (2007); Triennale di Milano, Italy (2007); Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France (2008); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba (2009); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York (2009); Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2013); and Virginia MOCA (2013). Cotton's work is in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; as well as many prominent private collections. Cotton lives and works in New York.