About Linda

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 at The London Art Fair, Scope Miami Beach, LA Art Show, Market Art & Design Hamptons, The Affordable Art Fair, Uprise Art, Moberg Gallery and J.Makey Gallery. 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 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, Annie 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 declare that the entire structure is a painting, while also referencing ideas of restraint, repair, skeletal systems, and skin. I’ve been thinking a lot about “women's work” and motherhood in these pieces, and alluding to blankets, bellies, wrinkles, leathery skin, sagginess, hairstyles, gravity, decay, and things falling apart.

The grid is another recurring element that speaks to ongoing personal and societal battles to balance order and chaos, as well as commentary on the pixelation of our social lives and the natural world. 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 provoke ideas about being “too much”—a label women are often given—and to 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

GROUP SHOWS

2024 The Stairwell Space, Bridgeport CT, I Do Not Know What It Is That I Am

2024 Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven CT, Nonsuch

2024 Anonymous Society, Redding CT, Parallel Play

2024 Art06870, Old Greenwich, CT, Makers and Movers

2024 NYCCC Canopy Program, NY, Warm Embrace

2024 URSA Gallery, Bridgeport, CT, Kaleidoscope Eyes

2024 Westport Library, CT, Thinking Inside The Box

2024 Artport Kingston, NY, Where We Are

2023 URSA Gallery, Bridgeport, CT, In Medias Res

2023 Art06870, Old Greenwich, CT, Arrival/Departures

2023 Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, Tickled Pink: A Virtual Exhibition

2023 J. Mackey Gallery, East Hampton, NY, Take Flight

2023 Visionary Projects X The Yard, NYC, Instinctive Patterns

2023 Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT, New Members Show

2022 Silvermine Arts Center, New Canaan, CT, 72nd A One

2022 Nevelson Chapel, NYC, Sacred Pause, Sacred Fertilization

2022 J. Mackey Gallery, East Hampton, NY, Visiting Artist Show

2021 Artport Kingston, NY, Dumplings & Sugar Cookies

2021 Moberg Gallery, IA, Winter Group Show

2021 Nevelson Chapel, NYC, Revitalization

2021 Monica King Projects, NYC, Talismans

2020 Visionary Projects, NYC, The Era of Seclusion

2020 Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Deep Blue See

ART FAIRS

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 / CONTINUED EDUCATION

2024-2025 Canopy 2.0 with Catherine Haggarty and Yevgeniya Baras

2023-2024 The Canopy Program with Kimia Kline

2023 Six Week Residency at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2021 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Hilary Doyle

2022 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Catherine Haggarty

2022 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Will Hutnick

2022 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Jared Linge

2023 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Celine Mo

2023 NYC Crit Club Visiting Critic Program with Sharmistha Ray

2022 Four Week Residency at Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

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

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 Magazine

2022 Following Your Passion I Like Your Work podcast

2022 Abstract Art 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

ARTISTIC 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