JULIO COTTO is a Puerto Rican multimedia artist, actor and writer
originally from the projects and tenements of the South Bronx. At age
six, he moved to the South East, where he spent the next three decades
in Miami, Greenville and Charleston. Julio has no formal training, but
was born into a family of artisans. As a young boy, he watched and
drew alongside his grandfather, oil painter, photographer and
photograph retoucher, Abednego Rivera. As a teenager he was apprentice
to his uncle, multimedia artist, Efrain Frencci Rivera. From ages 15
to 23, Cotto inked and lettered several comic books for Bugged-Out
Comics, painted carousel horses, illustrated greeting cards and worked
as a graphic artist and sign painter in Greenville, SC. He moved to
Charleston, SC in 1998 to work on his comics and begin painting. Since
2001 Cotto has shown his works all over the Low Country and the South
East. The Latin artist has participated in over one hundred art shows
over the past thirteen years, including Charleston Contemporary 2010:
Influence, Yo! What Happened to Peace? and all Belle Muse Eros Shows
and Kulture Klash Festivals. The Cartoonist wrote and illustrated
comic strips for several publications in the Low Counrty. Julio has
been voted ‘Best Local Visual Artist’ 2004, 2006 and 2008 by
Charleston City Paper readers. In 2005 he received two Silver Addy
Awards for his cover of Barfly magazine. In 2008 the artist moved back
to Greenville to paint murals for Liquid Highway and to be with his
family. A year later he moved back to Charleston to show new work and
begin his acting career. In his is last years in SC, Cotto signed and
showed with SCOOP Studios and Matthew Campbell Galleries. He also
worked as an actor on Army Wives and several indie films. The
highlight of his career, the actor states, was speaking at Pecha Kucha
10 Charleston. Bill Murray was in attendance. To further his acting
and art careers, Julio moved back to NYC on Christmas Eve 2011. He has
worked on White Collar, Blue Bloods and was featured on Inside the
American Mob and Lifetime’s Anna Nicole Movie. Julio’s first NYC
Solo show opened in May of 2014 at Greenpoint Gallery. He dedicated
the milestone exhibit to his mentors and heroes, grandfather Abednego
Rivera 1925-1998 and uncle Frencci Rivera 1962-2014. The Latino artist
is currently showing several paintings at The Drunken Horse in the
Chelsea Art District in Manhattan. Julio has donated his time and art
to several charities, nonprofits and private fundraisers including
Stoked Mentoring, Camp Create, Sidewalk Chalk, My Sister’s House,
Hunger Hurts Greenville, Low Country Aids Services, Susan G. Komen
Foundation, MUSC Children’s Cancer Research Center, Waves for
Development, Surfrider Foundation and ASPCA. Cotto lives and works in
Brooklyn, NY.