Issue 37 Artist Statement

Will Cotton

Cover Art: Nut House

Will Cotton’s artwork explores beauty, desire, and insatiability. His utopian landscape paintings are often composed of sugary desserts which are painted from large dioramas and sets that Cotton, an accomplished pastry chef, constructs in the studio from actual sweets. Cotton served as the artistic director of the California Gurls music video for pop singer Katy Perry and was commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum in 2012 to create the set for their annual performance of Peter and the Wolf. His work is included in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Museum of Art. Cotton has been represented by Mary Boone Gallery in New York City since 1999. (www.willcotton.com or Instagram @willcottonnyc)