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Jim Cotter first began creating sculpture and art jewelry in the 1960s while at university. Emerging within the countercultural climate of the era, his work is emblematic of the Funk Movement. In jewelry and metalsmithing, Funk rejected refinement and preciousness in favor of humor and personal expression. Artists embraced unconventional materials and found objects. The body was commonly referenced, as were social and political topics. Amongst his contemporaries, Cotter produced works that were often playful and deliberately anti-establishment. 

Funk jewelry challenged traditional notions of adornment, treating the body as a site of experimentation and critique rather than elegance alone. Funk metalsmithing similarly disrupted conventional ideas of function, offering provocation over utility. Cotter’s work exemplifies these approaches through wit, material inventiveness, and resistance to formal restraint.

Cotter brought together leaders of the the Funk jewelry movement together for the first time: Robert Ebendorf, Merrily Tompkins, J. Fred Woell, Robert Cory, David LaPlantz, Gary Noffke, Lane Coulter, and many more. He founded Summervail Art Workshop and Critical Studies Program with his good friend and painter, Randy Milhoan. Running from 1971 to 1984, this seasonal gathering brought metalsmiths and artists from all walks of life together in Vail, Colorado. The project evolved into a vital site of artistic exchange, collaboration, and mentorship. Cotter was instrumental in fostering a spirit of community and experimentation, reinforcing the social and collaborative ethos that has remained central to his practice.

belts

Cotter’s belts embrace humor and tongue-in-cheek provocation, key strategies of 1970s Funk practice. In some cases he offers commentary, and in others, he simply offers his wit. 

Americana

Growing up in Corning, Iowa, Cotter drew from rural American life in his early works. He incorporated Western and farm iconography and an attitude shaped by the grit, resourcefulness, and communal practice of repairing and repurposing materials that he saw growing up in the plains.

His McDonald's series was influenced by watching his home change throughout the 70s and 80s. He explains, "It was during a period of time when I saw that all of rural America was changing. Corporate people were taking over... you were losing a way of life."

home wears

Pushing the boundaries of the “functional,” Cotter experimented with bronze to create humorous sculptures. While metalworking has traditionally centered on vessels and utensils themselves, Cotter instead imagined what might occur on the plate. Drawing from the irreverent spirit of the 1970s Funk Movement, he transformed domestic tableware into sites of narrative and satire.

Body art

Extending Funk’s challenge to preciousness and decorum, Cotter turned the body itself into a site of artistic inquiry. Through creating stamps or piercing the skin, he treated the body as both a canvas and collaborator. These works reflect the experimental ethos of the hippie era, when personal expression, physical autonomy, and countercultural resistance reshaped the boundaries between art, jewelry, and performance.

concrete& rocks

Cotter started using rock in his jewelry in the early 1970s. Driven by the innate beauty of the objects and captivated by the idea of challenging notions of preciousness, rocks were the natural choice.

He first began incorporating concrete in the early 1980s. As one of the first to incorporate this affordable material, Cotter lectures across the globe, encouraging jewelry students to invite more play into their craft. He inspires his students to see glamor in affordable and unusual material, something he discovered himself as a university student.