Hunter Potter

Hunter Potter was born in 1990 in Syracuse, NY, and studied studio art at the University of Vermont where he graduated in 2013.  Hunter Potter uses a bold color palette and whimsical, geometric figures inspired by American folklore to create poppy paintings that celebrate the minutiae of daily life on a monumental scale. Potter’s characters often draw on subjects on the fringe of society; the cowboy is a recurring motif, perhaps questioning what it means to be a man in contemporary American society. More often than not,  these paintings simply encourage the viewer to stop and appreciate the here and now. Potter’s figures often feature society’s underdogs; the criminals, fighters, and runaways he associates his work with are similar to characters in novels by John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and Wallace Stegner, whose writing influences Potter’s work. Although he continues to create more intimate work, the artist’s enthusiasm for large scale works began when he was apprenticed to paint billboards in New York. Potter was the recipient of the Roger Smith Artist Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center in 2018 and was awarded residencies in London at the Plop Residency and The Fores Project.