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photo x benjamin arnold
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Bio
Kyle Cottier (b. 1993, Louisville, KY) is a visual artist based in Knoxville, TN. Their interdisciplinary practice merges traditional basketry and woodworking techniques with sculpture, installation, and photography. Through innovative installations, Kyle explores the intersections of the natural, constructed, and digital worlds, focusing on themes of transformation—both personal and societal.
Kyle holds a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati (2015) and attended the New York Studio Residency Program in Brooklyn (2014). They are currently a third-year MFA candidate in sculpture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From 2021 to 2022, they were an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in the Smoky Mountains.
Kyle was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, with their work featured in Sculpture Magazine. Their work was also included in The Museum for Art in Wood’s exhibition Vessel: Embodiment, Autonomy, and Ornament in Wood in Philadelphia. Recent exhibitions include Modular at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. Kyle is currently developing a new body of work funded by Tri-Star’s Current Art Fund Project Grant.
Kyle holds a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati (2015) and attended the New York Studio Residency Program in Brooklyn (2014). They are currently a third-year MFA candidate in sculpture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From 2021 to 2022, they were an Artist-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in the Smoky Mountains.
Kyle was awarded the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, with their work featured in Sculpture Magazine. Their work was also included in The Museum for Art in Wood’s exhibition Vessel: Embodiment, Autonomy, and Ornament in Wood in Philadelphia. Recent exhibitions include Modular at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. Kyle is currently developing a new body of work funded by Tri-Star’s Current Art Fund Project Grant.
Statement
I am an interdisciplinary artist making small modular units that I weave into larger forms. I am inspired by systems of connection, from cyclical patterns in nature to the pixels of our virtual landscape bridging the gap between online and offline. As a sculptor, I prioritize the handmade object, valuing the connection between my body and the fragments of nature I use. My work is devoted to traditional craft practices like basketry, studying vessels as symbols of embodiment that combine form and thought. Vessels, a fundamental form in craft, represent the intersection of utility and symbolic meaning, embodying the relationship between individuals and their environment.
My holistic approach cycles between concepts of ruin and repair, driven by ecological transformation. Working primarily in wood and photography, I form modular elements, employing patterns and repetition to map a process of absence—radically questioning the nature of our material environment and how we perceive things. Transforming gathered materials is essential, yet I remain mindful of their displacement from their original context, maintaining prominent negative space in my work.
My sculptures reflect the movement of my body around a central void, evoking impermanence and longing. Using the vessel as a metaphor for autonomy, power, and agency over one’s body, I explore its physical shape and symbolic meaning, emphasizing that its value lies not only in its emptiness but also in its potential to contain something meaningful.
My holistic approach cycles between concepts of ruin and repair, driven by ecological transformation. Working primarily in wood and photography, I form modular elements, employing patterns and repetition to map a process of absence—radically questioning the nature of our material environment and how we perceive things. Transforming gathered materials is essential, yet I remain mindful of their displacement from their original context, maintaining prominent negative space in my work.
My sculptures reflect the movement of my body around a central void, evoking impermanence and longing. Using the vessel as a metaphor for autonomy, power, and agency over one’s body, I explore its physical shape and symbolic meaning, emphasizing that its value lies not only in its emptiness but also in its potential to contain something meaningful.
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Education
2022-25 MFA Sculpture Candidate at University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN 2011-15 BFA Print Media Major, Sculpture Minor from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH Exhibitions 2025 everything not saved will be lost, Ewing Gallery, Knoxville, TN (thesis) 2024 Shaping the Future: National Showcase of Emerging Sculptors, 623 Smithfield St, Pittsburg, PA Form + Space, Museum of Art - DeLand, DeLand, FL Zero Art Fair, Zero Art Fair, Elizaville, NY Modular, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH Interplay, Surface Design Association, The Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, OH Moment by Moment, Relay Ridge, Knoxville, TN (solo) In Cahoots, Gallery 1010, Knoxville, TN [This Page is Intentionally Left Blank], Gallery 1010 Knoxville, TN TO BE NO(W)HERE, Gallery 1010, Knoxville, TN (solo) Points of Departure, Queen City Clay, Cincinnati, OH Art Gala, CAC Beardsley Community Farm, Knoxville, TN 2023 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition, 57th NCECA Conference, DAAP Reed Gallery, Cincinnati, OH This Never Happened, Mighty Mud Gallery, Knoxville, TN Dogwood Arts Regional Exhibition, Emporium Gallery, Knoxville, TN Student Scholarship Exhibition, OU School of Visual Arts Spotlight Gallery, Norman, OK Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art Student Exhibition, Gallery 1010, Knoxville, TN It’s a Trap!, Gallery 1010, Knoxville, TN Functional Beauty, Gallery 1010, Knoxville, TN 76th Annual Student Art Competition, Ewing Gallery, Knoxville, TN UTK Graduate Student Senate Awards Banquet, Student Union, Knoxville, TN 2022 Vessel: Embodiment, Autonomy, and Ornament in Wood, The Museum for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA The Shape I'm In, 44th Annual Tri State Sculptors Conference, Richardson Arts Center, Spartanburg, SC Mid-South Sculpture Alliance Scholarship Artists, K Space Gallery, Corpus Christi, TX Octocalypse, Downtown Gallery, Knoxville, TN Your Hand in the Shape of a Cup of Tea - Just This, Able Trade Gallery, Knoxville, TN Party of Five, Sandra J. Blain Galleries, Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, Gatlinburg, TN One Year Later, Appalachian Center for Craft, Cookeville, TN 2021 Longue Durée, Holland Tunnel Gallery, Newburgh, NY Artists-In-Residence, Wolpert Gallery, Gatlinburg, TN 2020 Earthbound, Stride Art Gallery, New York, NY Collective Expeditions II, International Society of Antiquaries Collective, BSB Gallery, Trenton, NJ 2019 Unchanging Window, Geoffrey A. Wolpert Gallery, Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, Gatlinburg, TN (solo) Collective Expeditions I, International Society of Antiquaries Collective, SUNY Ulster, Stone Ridge, NY If Wishes Were Horses, Queen City 15 Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY 2018 Up Close, Lazy Susan Gallery, New York, NY Time Travelers, Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, NY Labor & Materials, 21c Museum, Bentonville, AK 2017 Dusklittle, Orange County Arts Council, Newburgh, NY Green Space, Newburgh Open Studios, Newburgh, NY Dusklit, Seligmann Homestead, Sugarloaf, NY Dia, Matteawan Gallery, Beacon, NY 2016 Re-Union, B Minus Gallery, Santa Ana, CA Labor & Materials, 21c Museum, Oklahoma, OK 2015 Pop Stars, 21c Museum, Cincinnati OH Convocation, The Carnegie, Covington, KY On Labor, Pearlman Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (thesis) 2014 Foreign Bodies, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati OH Intermission, Chidlaw Gallery, Cincinnati, OH Honorable Mention, New York Studio Residency Program, Brooklyn, NY Residencies 2021-22 Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN 2014 New York Studio Residency Program, Brooklyn, NY Grants, Award, & Fellowships 2024 Elizabeth Raphael Founder's Prize Award Finalist Tri-Star Current Art Fund Project Grant International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award 2023 Orin B. and Erma G. Graff Scholarship, University of Tennessee Knoxville, School of Art Materials Grant International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award Nominee Pocosin Art School of Fine Craft, Full Scholarship, Danielle Rose Byrd, Bowl Carving The Carter Center Live Auction Commissioned Sculpture, Atlanta, GA, (18’, 19’, 22’, 23’) Diane Solomon Kempler Scholarship, University of Tennessee Knoxville Dianne Komminsk Scholarship, Mid-South Sculpture Alliance 2022 National Basketry Organization, Panel Presenter, Unusual Suspects: Constructing Form + Concept Mid-South Sculpture Alliance, Scholarship Award Mid-South Sculpture Alliance, Confab, Panel Presenter College of Arts & Sciences Graduate Fellowship, University of Tennessee Knoxville First Year Fellowship, University of Tennessee Knoxville Summer Fellowship, University of Tennessee Knoxville 2018 Dianne Komminsk Scholarship, Mid-South Sculpture Alliance 2021 Arrowmont School of Arts & Craft, Full Scholarship, Alicia Deets, Waterfall Table 2020 New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Relief Funds Publications 2025 Mergoat Magazine Vol.2 No.2 Split the Rail Issue Sculpture Magazine, January/February 2025 Issue 2024 Manifest Exhibition Annual, Retrospective Season 18 New South Finds, September Issue 2023 Phoenix Literary Arts Magazine, Spring Issue 2022 Basketry+, Summer Issue 2021 Divide Magazine, May/June Issue No. 3 2020 Under The Bridge, Installation - Autumn Issue Art Market Magazine, June Issue 48 2019 Friend of the Artist, Volume 9 2018 Chronogram, December Issue, Hudon Valley, NY Artrepreneur, Art Business Journal, November Issue, New York, NY Roll Magazine, TIME TRAVELERS, June Issue, Hudson Valley, NY |