Linda Colletta
(b.1974, New York)
Linda Colletta is a self-taught abstract painter based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose practice spans painting, weaving, and installation. Her work is rooted in scale, physicality, and material memory.
Colletta returned to painting full time in 2012 following a sixteen-year career as a scenic painter, prop master, and art director in the music television industry. She founded The Stairwell Space, an artist-run experimental art space in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and currently participates in the Canopy Program, a year-long, intensive mentorship program for artists.
Artist Statement
My work explores the dimensional and tactile nature of painting, and often references artists who have pushed this medium beyond the traditional picture plane, including Sam Gilliam, Donna Nelson, Anni Albers, Laura Owens, and Mark Bradford among many others.
My process begins with pooling paints onto multiple layers of raw canvas stretched flat to large-scale tables. I use my body weight, gravity, and time to make the paint seep through the canvases, and allow them to stick together as they dry. I peel them apart, flip them over, working both sides of the canvas, and repeat this over many weeks. This intensely physical process infuses the paintings with a sense of history, grit, and grunge—an important central theme throughout my work.
Some canvases are complete at this point, while others continue to morph as I draw, paint, tear, weave, sew, staple, tape, and collage them. At times, I expose the stretcher bars and wrap them with torn strips of painted canvas as a way to reference ideas of restraint, repair, skeletal systems, and skin. I've been thinking a lot about women's work and invisible labor in these pieces, and alluding to blankets, bellies, wrinkles, leathery skin, sagginess, hairstyles, gravity, decay, and things falling apart.
I mostly work large-scale, using my entire body, and physically immerse myself in the materials. I am interested in how scale and the edges of the canvas can be access points for micro-moments to reveal more of the painter behind the painting. I am drawn to supersaturated, dramatic colors that conjure nostalgic feelings of fearlessness, freedom, and play.
CV
SOLO SHOWS
2024 The Untitled Space, Tribeca NY, Scratch & Sniff
2024 J.Mackey, East Hampton NY, Poetry & Punk Rock
2024 Moberg Gallery, Des Moines IA, Red Hot
2021 The White Room Gallery, Bridgehampton NY, This Is Different
2020 Southport Galleries, Southport CT, The Sound of Color
Select GROUP SHOWS
2026 ÆMPIRE AGAIN\, Hartford Artspace Gallery, New Haven, CT Curated by John O’Donnell
2024 The Stairwell Space, Bridgeport, CT.
Curated by Terry Smith
2024 Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven CT.
Curator by Amiée Burg
2024 Anonymous Society, Redding CT.
Curated by Nicole Bricker
2024 Art06870, Greenwich, CT.
Curated by Michael Manning & Ben Quensel
2024 NYCCC Canopy Program, NYC.
Curated by Kimia Kline
2024 URSA Gallery, Bridgeport, CT.
Curated by Chris Dam
2024 Artport Kingston, NY.
Curated by Laurie De Chiara and Stefan Saffer
2023 Art06870, Greenwich, CT.
Curated by Michael Manning and Ben Quensel
2023 Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Curated by Veronica Clements
2023 J. Mackey Gallery, East Hampton, NY.
Curated by Justine Mackey
2023 Visionary Projects x The Yard, NYC.
Curated by Haylee Barsky and Blayne Planit
2023 Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT.
Curated by Roger Mudre
2022 Nevelson Chapel, NYC.
Curated by Marly Hammer
2022 J.Mackey Gallery, East Hampton, NY.
Curated by Justine Makey
2021 Artport Kingston, NY.
Curated by Laurie De Chiara and Stefan Saffer
2021 Moberg Gallery, IA.
Curated by TJ Moberg
2021 Nevelson Chapel, NYC.
Curated by Chellis Baird
2021 Monica King Projects, NYC.
Curated by Monica King
ART FAIRS
2025 Spring Break Art Show, NYC. Curated by Marly Hammer
2023 London Art Fair, Virginia Visual Arts, London, UK
2022 LA Art Show, Moberg Gallery, CA
2021 Scope Miami Beach, The White Room Gallery, FL
2021 Art Market Hamptons, The White Room Gallery, NY
2018 Affordable Art Fair, NYC
RESIDENCIES / Independent study
2023 Six Week Residency at Vermont Studio Center
2022 Four Week Residency at Vermont Studio Center
2025-2026 Canopy 2.0 with EJ Hauser & Yevgeniya Baras
2024-2025 Canopy 2.0 with Catherine Haggarty & Yevgeniya Baras
2023-2024 The Canopy Program with Kimia Kline
2021-2024 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Hilary Doyle, Catherine Haggarty, Will Hutnick, Jared Linge, Celine Mo and Sharmistha Ray.
AWARDS
2025 CT Office of the Arts, Artist Fellowship Grant
curation
2026 The Future is Handmade, group show at Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts.
2025 Micro Macro, group show @ The Stairwell Space
2025 Make Believe, group show @ The Stairwell Space
LECTURES / PANELS
2023 The Artist Walk & Talk, Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2022 Artist Talk with Marly Hammer of Pace Gallery, Nevelson Chapel, NYC
2021 The Art of Letting Go, Carriage Barn Arts, CT
2020 Spectrum 2020 Artist Talk, Carriage Barn Arts, CT
2019 Self-Expression Through Abstraction, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Larry Levy, NYC
Google, Chelsea, NY
Memorial Sloan Kettering, NY
New York Presbyterian, NYC
Schonfeld Strategic, New York, London, Miami and San Francisco
The Dorsey, Wynwood
277 Fifth Ave, Jeffrey Beers International, NYC
Chelsea W 26 LLC, NYC
Justin Bieber, CA
PUBLICATIONS
2026 Bridgeport Gallery Hosts Emerging Artists, CT Examiner
2023 2023’s Top Spaces, Uprise Art
2023 Studio Visit Magazine, Volume 51, Curated by Lauren Szumita
2023 Art Rooted in History, Success Fueled by Risk, Westport Lifestyle
2022 Following Your PassionI Like Your Work podcast
2022 The Courage to Design Your Own Path For Your Listening Pleasure
2022 Linda Colletta’s Warped Tour, Whitehot Magazine
COLLABORATIONS
2018 The Citizenry, NYC
2018 One Kings Lane Flagship Store, NYC
2014-2019 One Kings Lane
2017 Madewell
2014-2015 Lululemon
community INVOLVEMENT
2024 Founder and Director of The Stairwell Space, an artist-run project space in Bridgeport CT
2015-2024 Co-Lead organizer of Annual Open Studios for AmFab Arts, Bridgeport CT
ExhibitionS
Scratch & Sniff • NYC • 2024
Red Hot • Moberg Gallery • 2024
Poetry & Punk Rock • J. Makey Gallery • 2024
Elektro Woven • Westport, CT • 2023
This Is Different • The White Room Gallery • Bridgehampton, NY • 2021
The Sound of Color • Southport Galleries • 2020
Beauty Marks • Westport, CT • 2019
