Pace Prints Chelsea is pleased to announce Will Cotton: New Monoprints. The exhibition will feature new lithographic monoprints which the artist has created at Pace Paper. This is Cotton’s first show with Pace Prints.

Will Cotton is a painter largely known for his decadent and surreal candy landscapes, exploring themes of temptation, gluttony and indulgence. In his exhibition of works on paper for Pace Prints, he begins with the premise that these figurative characters have found themselves in a place where all desire is fulfilled all the time. Mr. Cotton imagines how one might address the issue of adornment in this given circumstance.

In his Cupcake Tiara series, the model has decorated herself with a tiara made of three tiered cupcakes, looking over her shoulder at the viewer with guilty pleasure. In this series of lithographs, the model retains her position on the page, as Cotton draws over the print in crayon, charcoal, colored chalk, gouache, oil and acrylic, adding elements of atmosphere to the scene. The Ribbon Candy series portrays the model wearing an elaborate headdress made of ribbon candy, denoting status as persuasively as in renaissance portraiture. Printed in different color combinations and a variety of lithographic techniques, the monoprints also employ much of the artist’s hand with additional drawing and coloration.

All of the images started with a series of drawings completed by the artist on lithograph plates, which were printed by Master Printer Ruth Lingen, and then returned to Cotton’s studio. In his studio, he used the printed image as a jumping-off point for further exploration of the theme, drawing and painting over the ink, executing a variety of compositions and color combinations and gauging their chromatic impact and difference.

Will Cotton was born in Melrose, Massachusetts in 1965. Mr. Cotton received his BFA from Cooper Union, New York and also studied at the New York Academy of Art, the Academié des Beaux Arts in Rouen, France and La Napoule Art Foundation in La Napoule, France. Cotton has exhibited both nationally and internationally since 1995. Will Cotton is represented by Mary Boone Gallery, NYC. His work can be found in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art and the Maramotti Collection, among others. Will Cotton lives and works in New York City.