Cicely Cottingham


Cicely Cottingham is an artist who lives and works in West Orange, New Jersey. She has received numerous awards for her paintings and works on paper and is represented in several public collections. Cottingham is a cofounder of a design studio and revenue stream through 2009 for the nonprofit art center Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ.

Early life and education

Cottingham was born in Brooklyn, New York City. and grew up in an old farmhouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. Before settling in West Orange, New Jersey, she lived and worked in New York City, England, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn.

Art

Cottingham works primarily with water-based paints on wood, on hardboard panels, and on paper. Describing her own work, Cottingham says,

Career and honors

Rrecognition that Cottingham has received for her work.
YearFellowship or Award
2011–2012The Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant
1999Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper Fellowship Award
1994–95NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award
1995Residency, The Millay Colony for the Arts, Lila Acheson Wallace Foundation Grant
1986–87NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award
1986–87Pollock/Krasner Foundation Grant
1986–87Hereward Lester Cooke Foundation Grant
1983–84NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award

Cottingham’s work is in the permanent collections of the Newark Museum and the Institute for Jazz Studies, Rutgers University-Newark. Her print Still Life Design for Living : Beauford is in the permanent collections of the Montclair Art Museum, Jersey City Museum, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, The Noyes Museum of Art, Newark Public Library, Morris Museum and New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Corporate collections include Prudential, Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co., Johnson & Johnson and McGraw Hill.
She has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions. Her work has been written about in the New York Times, New Art Examiner, Review, and Artnet Magazine.