Kerry Cottle

Biography
Kerry Cottle (b.1985) uses the constraint of the square to create meditative paintings. She starts by creating a grid on a square canvas and follows her intuition to fill in each square. The resulting works are a hybrid of rigidity and organic forms, a cross between technology and metaphysics reminiscent of woven textiles. In addition to painting, her practice includes printmaking, textiles, and works with found objects. 

Kerry Cottle has an MA and BA from California State University and is currently pursuing an MFA from the University of New Mexico. She has exhibited her work nationally at Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, NM, Shimo Center for the Arts in Sacramento, CA, and Lily Aeske Arts in Boulder, CO, among others. She has received the Betty Szabo Fellowship and a Northwestern Oklahoma State University Artist-in-Residence award. Cottle currently lives and works in Albuquerque, NM.

The mingling of the material quality of oil paint and the visual language of line, grid, color, and shift, leads to moments of divergence from the order that otherwise grounds these works. This suggests that the inclination for control or order is oftentimes met with a desire for fluidity or elasticity. The use of color also goes to support this want for softening in an otherwise hard-edged or sharp environment: the rainbow implies a sense of unending circularity that spirals inward and outward, providing depth and breadth and the ability to span the fullness of the allotted space: in this case, within the square’s edges. – Kerry Cottle

Education
2022 MFA Candidate, Painting and Drawing, Certificate: Race & Social Justice, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM
2018 Summer Intensive Language Program (Russian), Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey CA
2013 MA, California State University, Sacramento
2011 BA, California State University, Sacramento

Solo Exhibitions:
2022 Matrices, 1415 Gallery, Albuquerque, NM (forthcoming)
2019 Attachment Claws, Lille Aeske, Boulder Creek, CA
2015 An Arch is a Circle Given Up, Shimo Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2012 Untitled, Robert Else Gallery CSUS, Sacramento, CA
2010 Recent Work, Raymond Witt Gallery CSUS, Sacramento, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions:
2022
Another World, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM (forthcoming)

2021
Not Knowing, Cheers to Knowing, Juried Show, South Broadway Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM
Slow Roll, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM

2019
At First Sight, CFA Downtown Studio, Albuquerque NM

2018
Her Way, JayJay Gallery, Sacramento CA

2016
Vittu Saatana: Kerry Cottle and Jose Di Gregorio, Beatnik Studios, Sacramento CA

2015
Directions, Beatnik Studios, Sacramento CA

2014
Kerry Cottle and Emily Swinsick, Beatnik Studios, Sacramento, CA

2013
Master of Arts Thesis Show, Library Gallery CSUS, Sacramento CA
Young Poets of Sacramento, Fusion International Arts Center, Sacramento CA

Awards and Residencies:
2022 Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship Nominee
2021-2022 Graduate Student Success Scholarship
2021-2022 Betty Szabo Fellowship
2020-2021 Hilmer G. Olsen Memorial Scholarship and Lynnie Wienecke Scholarship
2017 Northwestern Oklahoma State University Artist-in-Residence
2016-2017 Fulbright Study/Research Grant Semi Finalist, Russia
2013 Increase Robinson Memorial Fellowship Award, Annual Student Art Show, CSUS

Press:
Dalkey, Victoria, ‘Her Way’ features women artists pushing their art in new directions, The Sacramento Bee, November 28, 2018
Couzens, Julia, Jose DiGregorio and Kerry Cottle: Spectacles of line and growth, The Sacramento Bee, August 25, 2016
The Black Rabbit, Issue 3, (http://www.jacasseur.com), 2015

Press Release
2022 Another World at Richard Levy Gallery