ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL
WILL COTTON AND ROB PRUITT
CITY/STATE
Memphis, TN
LOCATION IN HOSPITAL
Cafeteria
INSTALL DATE
2008
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ABOUT THE INSTALLATION
In May 2008, RxART installed six works by Rob Pruitt and two by Will Cotton in the Kay Kafe cafeteria at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Pruitt’s panda paintings at St. Jude are made of large sequin-like pieces that shimmer and reflect light. Each panda is climbing and munching bamboo to convey advancement, growth, and healing. The pandas have distinct personalities: some are shy, some are workers, but the story they all tell is one of encouragement and hope. Pruitt also created a 72″ x 72″ spangle board painting of a mother panda with a baby on her back climbing up bamboo. This mother-baby panda image is now being used as the symbol for the cafeteria at St. Jude.
Cotton’s paintings and drawings commonly portray confections, superbly drafted and sumptuously painted in a realistic style. “I’m interested in depicting an imagined utopia, a place that’s only about pleasure,” says Cotton. To realize the work, Cotton creates all the edible confections himself and then paints the finished scene on canvas. Cotton’s 80″ x 120″ paintings in Kay Kafe depict gingerbread houses, one in sunlight and one in snow and fog. In November 2007, Cotton invited a young St. Jude cancer survivor and her family to his studio to decorate the gingerbread houses that he modeled for these paintings at St. Jude.
This project was made possible by generous support from Shu Uemura, Christy Walton, the Leonard Wagner Charitable Trust, and the Fifth Floor Foundation.
ABOUT THE HOSPITAL
St. Jude is a recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to treating kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. In addition to patient treatment, St. Jude is focused on cutting-edge research to help better understand pediatric cancer and how to treat it. St. Jude is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. St. Jude has also been named among the top children’s cancer hospitals in the United States by U.S News & World Report since the ranking was first published in 2008.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Will Cotton (b. 1965, Melrose, MA) employs two of the most time-honored traditions in painting—landscape and still life—to create confectionery fantasies that evoke a happy desire of abundance, security, and childhood dreams. Creating elaborate scenes out of gingerbread, icing, candy canes, gum drops, and other sweets, Cotton theatrically lights the model, photographs it, and makes a painting from the photo. Cotton received his BFA from the Cooper Union in New York, spent a semester at the Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Arts in France, and studied for a year at the New York Academy of Art. He currently lives and works in New York City. His paintings have been included in numerous group shows throughout the United States and Europe, and have been the subject of solo shows at the Mary Boone, Silverstein, and I-20 Galleries in New York, NY, among many others.
Rob Pruitt (b. 1964, Washington, D.C.) is a post-conceptual artist known for his works that display Pop Art sensibilities while making ironic and witty social, cultural, and artistic commentary. His projects span across a variety of media, ranging from glittery paintings of pandas, to a book of DIY arts and crafts ideas, to transforming a gallery space into a flea market where visitors socialize with artists and buy both artworks and miscellaneous goods. Pruitt lives and works in New York. Pruitt has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI; LAND, Los Angeles, CA; and Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, NY. Pruitt is represented by 303 Gallery and Massimo De Carlo Gallery.
