Applying his own personal and inventive style using unorthodox material and color, Coates‘ work cannot be pinned  to one historical movement. It is informed by many, even contradictory schools of thought, such as Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism, Fluxus, Arte Povera, Mono-Ha, Modernism, Post-Modernism and Pop Art.

He is represented in many private and public collections including the Smithsonian Institute of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. His numerous Fellowships include The Pollock Krasner, The New York Foundation, and The Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Gregory Coates was born and raised in Washington D.C. where he attended the Corcoran School of Art, later won a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and did a stint at the Kunst Academie in Düsseldorf Germany.  He exhibited his work in numerous one person shows in the US, and worldwide including Berlin, Vienna, London, Kyoto, and Capetown.

In 2011 Coates created a large scale site-specific installation, “Fences” on top of a Swiss Alps glacier — the result of a residency at Verbier 3-D Foundation.  In 2010 he was invited to Japan to participate in the Aichi Triennial, and then was invited back in 2011 for the honor of being the first American artist to create a site-specific at the Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto, Japan – a UNESCO  world heritage site.

Coates’ international appeal is indicative of his global thinking. While strongly rooted and mature in his own culture and heritage his work addresses aspirations of humanity.  With a kind of street-smart savvy, he investigates within traditions of High Modernism.