About
The need to modify the contiguous space and the objects in it has always emanated as an irresistible force. The experiences that I have had throughout my life have changed the output of that force. As a Latina growing up in a matriarchal family, the useful craft making process and cooking that bonded members and generated stories and guidance are now part of my story and a repository from where I can launch a new re-invention of self.
My pieces have changed from my early geometric abstractions of the 80s into organic abstractions of visceral “stews” of ambiguous spaces.
The intrinsic need to create that has never abandoned me is now helping navigate a new representational form where the rectangular shape of the paintings, ready to hang, brakes into organic shapes that call to embrace our own internal nature of synapses, veins and organs. The empty spaces in the works respond to my interest in sculpture and how volumes play in the space. The shadows the work projects onto the wall modify its depth and the viewer’s perception of the whole. Those empty spaces can also be taken as an opportunity to dive into a calm abyss of exploration of self. Such an exploration is what I am gladly sharing with you now.
Isabel Cotarelo
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lives & works in Kingston, NY - USA
CV
Education
1994-1996 NYU - NY, NY M.A.Counseling
1978-1982 Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredon - Buenos Aires Argentina - MFA
1974-1978 Escuela Nacional de bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Grants & Awards
1982 - Exxon Corporation Fellowship
2020 - Warwick Center for the Arts - Honorable Mention
Exhibitions & Projects
2021
ASK - Kingston, NY
Crisalidas : an installation, solo exhibition
Olive Free Library - West Shokan, NY
Skin Deep, group exhibition
West Strand Gallery - Kingston, NY - Abstraction in Space and Time, group exhibition
ASK - Kingston, NY - Poetic License, group exhibition
2020
Gallery 40 - Poughkeepsie, NY - Hispanic Flare, group exhibition
Queen City 15 Gallery - Poughkeepsie, NY - Women, group exhibition
Poetic License - ASK, group exhibition
Stay Home Make Art - Dorsky Museum online exhibition
Warwick Center for the Arts - Warwick, RH - Abiding Courage Exhibition
ASK - Kingston, NY - Women's History Month
ArtBar Gallery - Kingston, NY - In support of Washbourne House
Emerge Gallery - Saugerties, NY - Paper Trail
WomensWork.Art Gallery -
Poughkeepsie, NY - CelebrateWomxn845
Art Juxtapose Gallery -Rosendale, NY
2019
Art JuXtapose Gallery - Rosendale, NY
Kingston City Hall - Sanctuary
ASK - Kingston, NY
2018
ASK - Kingston, NY
Summer 2007 Bajos de Chila, Oaxaca – Mexico
Organized, taught, and realized mural with local children at the Bajos de Chila Sports Center.
1983-1993 Exhibited art work in Europe, North America and Latin America