Lucy Cotter (1973, IE) trained as an artist and exhibited internationally before turning to writing and curatorial practice. She holds a PhD in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam for doctoral research examining the wider cultural agency of curating in an uneven world. She was curator of the Dutch pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale 2017, collaborating with artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh on a project entitled 'Cinema Olanda'. An extensive parallel programme in The Netherlands included exhibitions and events at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and EYE FilmMuseum, Amsterdam (all 2017). The accompanying catalogue published by Hatje Cantz, edited by Lucy Cotter, featured a series of commissioned interdisciplinary essays.
Cotter is widely published as a writer on contemporary art, contributing to books, catalogues, and such journals as Mousse, Artforum, Frieze online, Flash Art and Third Text. She is completing a book entitled 'Art Knowledge: Between the Known and the Unknown', which reflects on art's dynamic relationship with non-knowledge and the unknowable (with research funding from the Mondriaan Fund). Her edited volume 'Reclaiming Artistic Research', commissioned by '17, Institute for Critical Studies' (Mexico City) was published by Hatje Cantz in August 2019. She was guest editor of 'MaHKUscript Journal for Fine Art Research' in 2017-2018 and is guest curator/editor of the Fall 2019 edition of Art&Education's Classroom.
Cotter developed and led the newly founded Master Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Art and Royal Conservatoire, The Hague from 2010-2015, developing an experimental educational programme and initiating over 25 exhibitions in collaboration with venues nation-wide. She has lectured in art and critical theory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam, the PhDArts doctoral programme at the University of the Arts, The Hague, and at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. She currently works in an independent capacity for a number of institutions.