Josh Cote

I was raised by gypsies. True... in a sense. Born in 1971 I grew up going to art shows along the East Coast with my mother and father who was a traveling artist during the 60's, 70's and 80's, back when art festivals just started to form around the country. Memories of sleeping in the old land rover he drove to shows, sleeping on the road...with two white German shepherds, and the whole family jammed in there like a bunch of muppets!

I am a self taught sculptor and became interested in wire sculpture as it bridges both linear drawing and sculpture, the two and three dimensions. I create intricately woven wire sculptures using recycled aluminum, recycled copper or steel wire. With only needle-nosed pliers, innovative techniques developed by the artist are applied as the wire is painstakingly hand-manipulated, wrapped and woven to itself. Using negative space, combined with the linear nature of the wire, the finished work is much like a pen and ink drawing in sculptural form.

Similar to a gesture drawing, yet as a free standing sculpture, the manipulated wire captures the energy and life of the subject, there is movement and mystery. Wire sculpture is a bare and honest medium as nothing is hidden, all is revealed to the beholder.
Usually the raw metal wire is left in its natural achromatic state, but sometimes the wire is oxidized with a variety of acids to achieve unusual patinas. Every sculpture is unique and inimitable, impossible to replicate.
My work explores mixed media and wire as a flexible medium capable of expressing the unique space between realism and abstraction; where interpretation and our ability to create meaning is in flux.