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Overview
Claire B. Cotts is known for her richly layered abstractions that visually blend the forces of disorder and entropy with balance and structure to create pieces of arresting beauty. Using a colorful, yet muted palette, her paintings inhabit a space between texture and rhythm, between form and motion.
She uses a process of accretion to slowly build up her surfaces so that the elements are integrated, almost imperceptibly, into complex compositions that resonate with organic shapes and fragmentary bits of memory
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WorksBiography
"I am interested in the unspoken, unseen — that which lays beneath the surface. I want the viewer to have their field of vision filled by the painting, to experience that sense of wonder one has when immersed in a world which is usually hidden to the eye." — Claire B. Cotts
Claire B. Cotts is known for her richly layered abstractions that visually blend the forces of disorder and entropy with balance and structure to create pieces of arresting beauty. Using a colorful, yet muted palette, her paintings inhabit a space between texture and rhythm, between form and motion.She uses a process of accretion to slowly build up her surfaces so that the elements are integrated, almost imperceptibly, into complex compositions that resonate with organic shapes and fragmentary bits of memory.
Originally from Atlanta, Cotts lives and works in Berkeley, California. She studied art at Oberlin College, received her MFA from University of California at Berkeley, and received a Fulbright to study art in Turkey in 1994. Cotts has been exhibiting her distinctive, richly layered figurative and abstract canvases for over twenty-five years, and has been a member of the SFMOMA Artists' Gallery since 1989.
Her work has been exhibited in the following California museums: the Berkeley University Art Museum; the San Francisco Jewish Museum; the California Museum of Art in Santa Rosa; the Mocha in Oakland; and the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Her paintings are also found in numerous private and corporate collections.
Exhibitions-
Red Show
The Color of Love 11 - 25 Feb 2022A selection of works by our artists, reflecting their interpretations of one of the most celebrated human emotions – love. We invite you to join us in celebrating one of the most powerful colors of the spectrum.Read more -
Abstractions 2021
19 Nov - 12 Dec 2021Featuring Work by Beverly Kedzior, Emilio Lobato, Joseph Ostraff, Willy Bo Richardson + Judy WoodsRead more -
Claire B. Cotts + John Tarahteeff
Layers 10 - 26 Sep 2021Join Nuart Gallery for Layers— a group exhibition featuring new works by John Tarahteeff and Claire B. Cotts — two artists who offer contrast between figurative and abstract work, but...Read more -
Claire B Cotts
The Floating World 2 - 18 Oct 2020Nüart Gallery presents a solo exhibition of new paintings by Claire B Cotts. The exhibition will run October 2nd through October 18th, 2020. Follow this link to join the Zoom...Read more -
Abstractions Group Exhibition 2019
Shar Coulson, Cecil Touchon, Joseph Ostraff, Claire B Cotts, Rose Masterpol, & Anne Kaferle 8 - 24 Nov 2019Nüart Gallery is pleased to present, “ Abstractions 2019 ' a group exhibition of new work by six contemporary artists working in abstraction. The exhibition will run November 8 th...Read more -
Claire B. Cotts
everything that rises 12 - 28 Apr 2013In this solo exhibition, Claire B. Cotts explores the inherent tension in her abstractions. She uses a process of accretion to slowly build up her surfaces so that the elements...Read more