Anya Kotler "The Chrysalis"

Anya Kotler "The Chrysalis" 2026

Sculpture, Colored Pencil, Acrylic, Sparkles and Mica on Paper and Papier Mache
Dimensions: 18 x 19 x 10 inches
Unique
Signed on Verso

Anya Kotler was born in Ukraine, grew up in Moldova and Israel, and studied painting at the New York Academy of Art. Her work has most recently been exhibited at the Susquehanna Art Museum (PA), Buckham Gallery (MI), Warnes Contemporary (NYC), Woman Made Gallery (IL), and Pen and Brush Gallery (NYC).

Kotler’s work has been featured and reviewed in Art Spiel, New American Paintings, New Haven Independent, and Friend of the Artist. She is a recipient of the NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship and has received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant twice. Kotler has taught courses and workshops across the United States and in Ireland. She lives with her husband and three-year-old daughter in Summit, New Jersey.

Artist Statement: 

"My mixed media paintings and drawings on paper mache and carved panels range from large-scale wall installations and freestanding sculptures to small and intimate objects, with an obsessive attention to detail on every scale.

The work draws on archetypal imagery, and reinterpretations of biblical and mythological narratives, to explore the various iterations of the body as vessel, frame, and surface. The vessel is a volume that can hold inner contents such as ideas and feelings, and in a more literal sense nurtures life in motherhood - expanding, contracting, and shapeshifting to fit these contents. The frame surrounds and supports an inner core and separates it from the external world through the interplay between its physicality and the image within - evoking a strong connection to the persona, and the ways in which we seek to protect the body and spirit. The surface as skin is sensual, and I approach it with a focus on the topography of its undulating forms. I am interested in narrowing the separation between frame, image and object, and often incorporate an inner space locked within the piece, something inaccessible - a secret.

Most of the decision making in the work occurs through a highly intuitive process, stemming from the conviction that unconscious material has an inherent wisdom that extends far beyond our cerebral capacities. A strong focus of the recent work is seeking a sense of intentional agreement between our self-reflective, transcendence-seeking self, and the worldly fullness and physicality of being – as sought by Eve when she left the Garden of Eden to seek Earthly life." - Anya Kotler