Linda Colletta (b.1974, New York)
Linda Colletta is an abstract artist who has been creating art in various mediums for over 30 years. At 19-years old, she got her start in New York City as a scenic artist painting backdrops for MTV and VH1. After 16 years in the music television industry, she left to dedicate herself to painting full time. Her work has been shown internationally at The London Art Fair, Scope Miami Beach, LA Art Show, Market Art & Design Hamptons, Uprise Art, Burning Man, The Affordable Art Fair, and The Other Art Fair. Private collections include Principal Financial Group, Google NYC, Justin Bieber, Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York Presbyterian, 590 Madison and 277 Fifth NoMad. Linda is self-taught and works from her studio in Bridgeport, CT.
Artist Statement
My work pushes the dimensional and tactile nature of painting in a way that elicits an enchanting tension between poetry and punk rock. I repeatedly use the grid as a framework for juxtaposing dynamics to be shaped by a system of elegance and precision. My process is a direct reflection of my personal desire to alchemize hardships into heroism.
All of my work begins with pooling paints onto multiple layers of raw canvas, stretched flat to large scale painting tables. Utilizing both sides of the canvas, these underpaintings evolve in a non formulaic manner, collecting extraneous results of other processes, ultimately becoming the atmosphere of future paintings. I then draw, paint, tear, weave, sew, staple, tape, collage, and compose to establish order and resolve the hierarchy of what is seen and what is hidden in each finished work.
I continuously push the scale of my work as a show of force and physicality. I use this expansiveness as an access point into overlooked micro-moments which reveal a cyclical history of creation and deconstruction that I witness and experience throughout the terrain of my life. My choice of color comes from an intuitive and emotional place, and explores the dichotomy between danger and liberation.