Kottie Paloma

Born in 1974, Kottie Paloma lives and works in Los Angeles, USA. The current pandemic context pushes him to evaluate his past artistic practice, and to reflect upon his own reality. The works he selects are inhabited with the notions of solitude and confinement; truths that are highly contextual nowadays and that concern us all. Kottie Paloma’s exhibition is composed of eighteen drawings and six paintings, dating from 2012 to 2017, whose popular aesthetic is reminiscent of that of the Mission School.
 
His acrylic paintings were produced in the Berlin studio he owned between 2012 and 2016. In those days, he worked at the famous Das Gift Bar in the Neukölln neighbourhood and, on his way home at night, he would come across a few ghosts animated by drugs or alcohol. The solitude he experienced during these nocturnal wanderings and the unusual encounters inspired his works.
 
Faithful to the compositions found in his large paintings, Kottie Palomas’ drawings on paper are rich in symbols. The artist combines the stigmas and emblems of his personal life to trace the contours of a critical narrative, tackling vast subjects such as politics and other human behaviours.