UNM art MFA alum Kerry Cottle builds a career blending material and meaning

Kerry Cottle is emerging as a rising voice in contemporary painting, with exhibitions across California and a practice shaped by hands-on experimentation and sustainable materials.

After graduating from The University of New Mexico's College of Fine Arts with her MFA in 2022, Cottle relocated to Sacramento, Calif. where she has continued to expand her studio practice while teaching and engaging with local arts communities.

Her paintings reflect a sustained inquiry into material, abstraction and color, often emerging through what she describes as a slow, somatic "gradual excavation" of images. That approach has also led her toward more sustainable methods, including the reformulation of paper waste and the use of plant- and mineral-based pigments sourced from her environment.

"At UNM, I began tinkering with paper pulp made from the junk mail and other paper recycling I had accumulated, natural dyes and pigments, and bioplastics," Cottle said. "I had been wanting to find a way to engage with issues of the climate through my painting in a meaningful way and explored that through my material use in my art practice."

She added that the hands-on experimentation shaped much of her current visual language.

The artist's work has gained increasing attention on the West Coast, with exhibitions across California and a growing presence in contemporary painting circles. Most recently, Cottle's work is featured in Mental Ecologies, a group exhibition at de boer gallery in Los Angeles running through Jan. 3, 2026.

The show brings together seven artists whose work explores the shifting space where architecture, perception, memory and imagined futures intersect. The exhibition treats the pieces as a form of pseudo-architecture-rooms and landscapes that double as metaphors for interior states.

That blend of reflection and speculative imagination aligns with Cottle's interest in material process and abstraction, making her practice a natural fit for the show.

"I often work very intuitively, by feel and inclination," she said. "I'm led partially by the material, but there is also a lot of pre-dreaming, incubating, sitting with ideas and threads and trying to weave them together."

As the work unfolds, she said the direction is often surprising.

"It becomes very much about engaging with what the materials want, what the object itself feels like it wants to turn into," she said. "Responding to that, tinkering some more, and then taking moments to rest and let it all percolate. It feels very organic and playful and rooted."

Cottle has also become a mainstay at Axis Gallery in Sacramento, where her work has appeared in three exhibitions.

She received her MFA in painting and drawing from UNM in 2022 and has since taught at Folsom Lake College, Sierra College and California State University-Sacramento.

For more information on Cottle's work, visit kerrycottle.com, deboergallery.com or axisgallery.org.