My mixed media sculptural paintings and drawings are a way for me to re-understand my experiences. I seek to strip away my assumptions about the world, our bodies, the spaces we inhabit, and the stories we tell ourselves by trusting an intuitive and experimental process to guide my decision making. This approach lets my imagery slip away from the confines of certainty and language, and exist more namelessly, in a state of multiplicity. I find it to be both scary and liberating, as what I seem to know falls apart, leaving a naked mash of surfaces, sensations, and narratives. New and unexpected meanings, definitions and relationships emerge as the piece comes together, which point me to something I knew all along but could not see or understand previously.
My works delve into the relationship between pictorial space, and the physical presence of objects in space. Paintings and drawings possess depth and otherworldliness, while sculpture seems to exist right here, sharing our own floor and air. When these “mystical” and “real” spaces mingle, objects seem to flicker between worlds. I push my works to transgress their boundaries and become present in the world of surface, volume, and mass through the use of flat surfaces, bas relief, and sculpture in the round. The materials and forms weave between illusion and corporeality in ways that create meaning and connection.
Currently, I am most interested in examining my experiences of motherhood, and questioning how my perceptions evolve with this identity.
Bio
Anya Kotler was born in Ukraine, grew up in Moldova and Israel and studied painting at the New York Academy of Art. Most recently her work was included in exhibitions at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (CT), Pen and Brush Gallery (NYC), Silvermine Gallery (CT), and a solo exhibition at Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University (NY). Her work was featured/reviewed in New American Paintings, ArtMaze Magazine, New Haven Independent, and Friend of the Artist. Anya is a recipient of the NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship, and twice the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. She has taught courses and workshops around the US and in Ireland. Currently she lives with her husband, daughter and two cats, and builds sculptural paintings and drawings at her studio in the Greater New York area.