I combine a range of mediums including performance, installation, printmaking and video, to examine the human body from many angles, refracting its fragments and contradictions to rediscover it anew. My work shifts between figuration and abstraction and while each project invents its own visual vocabulary, all traces back to the body. I print with cut hair and the surfaces of my skin. I record my mud and paint-stained footsteps. I photograph eyes and cast rubber stamps from my lips and breasts. These body-generated marks twist and swirl to form abstracted cosmological and geometric patterns or figurative silhouettes on paper, fabric and walls. How the body looks and feels converge in visceral recognition and with fierce vulnerability.
My solo studio practice alternates with public community projects and collaborations that facilitate connection. These multi-faceted projects weave the bodies of others in choreographies and public installations that act as portals to private shared narratives.
A focus on printmaking has informed fresh takes and twists on themes that run through my work – physical presence, loss, and transformation. Plates made from hair and transferred body part prints are crafted and laid on the bed. As I turn the press wheel, I am reminded of the contact between one surface and another, and the impression one leaves behind.
Andrea Cote is an interdisciplinary artist working in photography, video, printmaking, and performance. Her practice encompasses studio-based work, mixed-media installations, and public projects that involve community participation.
Based In Hampton Bays, she has exhibited her work in North and South America at venues including Islip Art Museum, Delaware Art Museum, Abrons Arts Center, The Print Center, The Moore Gallery, and PanAmerican Art Projects. Her performances have been featured at The Watermill Center, The Neuberger Museum, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Peekskill Project, Chashama, The Dumbo Arts Festival, and Photo Buenos Aires. She is the recipient of several grants including NYSCA Creative Individuals Grants in 2014 and 2018, two SOS grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a fellowship at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop. She received a NYSCA Artist Support Grant with the Patchogue Arts Council for a community project for 2023.
In 2021 she presented the multidisciplinary project “Social Fabric: In the Public Square,” a collaboration with Ann Robideaux and Chris Jones at Guild Hall in East Hampton. “The Radiance Project,” supported by a residency at Southampton Arts Center, was a community-centered year-long project in 2018 for the East End of Long Island involving collective dance & printmaking with a final installation in the SAC Theater. In 2015 her temporary site-specific public project for Greenport, NY “A Port of Views,” was installed in Mitchell Park. In the summer of 2013 she presented “Eyes on Main Street,” a large-scale multimedia community public project for downtown Riverhead. In 2012 a 13-year survey, “Body of Evidence,” was presented at Dowling College.
Photo by Benny Migliorone