Nov 11, 2022
Linda Colletta is an abstract artist, who has been creating art in various mediums for over 25 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 nationally at Scope Miami Beach, LA Art Show, Market Art & Design Hamptons, Uprise Art, White Room Gallery, Southport Gallery, Burning Man, The Affordable Art Fair, and The Other Art Fair. Private collections include Google NYC, Justin Bieber, deCordova Museum, Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York Presbyterian, 590 Madison and 277 Fifth NoMad. Linda is self-taught and works from her studio in Bridgeport, CT.
Linda Colletta’s supersaturated canvases consume the viewer with intensity. Her frenetic approach to color, paint, and process push the limits of materiality resulting in multilayered compositions that function as emotional portals. Examining themes of compulsion, obsession, and addiction - through a lens of feminism, pop culture, and childhood nostalgia - Colletta’s paintings give form to the delicate alchemy of humanity.
Using color as her muse, Colletta explores textures, patterns and layers mimicked both in nature and urban landscapes through a variety of mediums like acrylic, oil sticks, spray paint, pastels, graphite, ink, and canvas scraps. Her chromatic obsession has led to an arresting and palpable palette through a liberal use of neon pastels which lay the foundations of her visual vocabulary. From fluorescent corals to midnight blues to neon limes, the multiple tones often work in tandem, activating one another upon countless picture planes. Fluid brushstrokes unite with organic pools of paint, expressing the dichotomy between the elegance and messiness of being human.
Working across multiple series at once, each collection is the product of fastidious conservation. Colletta harvests her studio for recycled remnants, including dried paint skins and paint water to carefully construct works that are classified by their makeup such as Dropcloths, Pools, Paintskins, or Mash Ups. The disparate elements found in her studio embody a collective energy from previous paintings. When combined, they embody a talisman of inspiration for future work. The inability to discard any left-over materials traces back to Colletta’s deeply personal issues with a compulsive overeating disorder that often caused her to covet, hoard, and binge junk food in an impetuous and secretive manner.
That all of her canvases maintain a confectionary aspect is no coincidence. Luscious hues of frosted pinks, shiny magentas, and slick reds recall classic childhood delights like cotton candy, cupcakes and sugar cookies. Her paint skins are easily mistaken for frosting or saltwater taffy. Layered with dark glitter and candy coatings, themes of glee and pain bolster her work, giving paintings like “It’s a Cupcake Panic Party”, “Licorice Lace” and “Clandestine Crunch” deeper meaning below the surface as they are emblems of her ongoing recovery process. Whimsical on the outside and gritty on the inside, each work is in direct pursuit of radical honesty and reckless abandon.
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