Press release

The Baldwin Gallery is pleased to announce its second solo show with the acclaimed New York artist, Will Cotton. The artist will showcase a new series of oil on paper and sepia on paper works that assert his affinity for painting the classical figure of the female form. Known for his succulently imagined candyland backdrops, Cotton, in this series, avoids the intangible geographic locations present in his previous paintings and paints individual women in their own glory amidst creamy, soft backgrounds. Cotton achieves the same level of desire, decadence, and sensuality using only his female subjects. Using real life maquettes of candies and cakes that he creates in his studio, Cotton paints these creations atop the heads of each woman in order to fabricate the “land of plenty where all is pleasure ... and constant indulgence.” Will Cotton was the designer of the set for the music video for Katy Perry’s hit song “California Gurls”. Katy Perry has served as a muse for Will who includes three paintings of her in this show. Will Cotton was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. His paintings have been included in numerous group shows throughout the United States and Europe, and have been the subject of recent solo shows in New York City, Paris and Berlin.

The Baldwin Gallery also presents its fourth solo show with internationally recognized New York artist, Joseph Stashkevetch. Stashkevetch creates exquisitely precise and striking monochromatic worlds in his meticulously constructed compositions of conte crayon and watercolor wash on paper. His works reveal dual impulses that are at once oppositional and complementary: one examines ephemeral remnants of our post-industrial infrastructure, while the other honors the sublime esthetic qualities found in nature. Stashkevetch’s works are sensual in their details no matter what the subject matter. With skill and deliberation he slowly builds the surface of a drawing using conté crayon, sandpaper and water washes on rag paper, until the forms emerging from light and shadow crystallize. From a distance these large-scale drawings appear photographic in their level of detail and clarity; however, as the viewer approaches the work, the pristine, velvety surface reveals the intricate texture and marking evident in hand-drawn work. Joseph Stashkevetch has shown extensively in Europe and America and is in important public collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The Baldwin Gallery also presents its third show with Matthew Weinstein, a New York-born and based artist, who is known for working in a variety of media. This show will present a series of three dimensional objects: sculptures in bronze, chrome, and paint. In an American culture that increasingly experiences reality through the filter of a virtual world, Weinstein’s work walks the ambiguous line between reality and unreality. Weinstein sets up a contrast balance between real and abstract as well as nature and artifice, as he showcases sculptures made over the last decade. His art has been exhibited widely in Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, the Netherlands, Italy, and the United States.

Images are available upon request. Please call 970.920.9797 for further information.