Will Cotton

Will Cotton is a New York based artist known for his paintings depicting surreal landscapes composed of sweets, pastries and melting ice cream. Often pin-up style models are placed in his imaginary worlds. Elegantly created and strategically composed, Cotton’s works are layered with cultural references from European 18th-century masters to American mid-century pinup painting. He makes paintings about the pure, the fragrant, the land of plenty, the desirable and the dream of perfection and complete indulgence. Through works which are sincere and masterfully executed, he uses food as an allegory for the human condition; sweets become a substitute for everything desirable and a metaphor for pure pleasure. Cotton explains: