Davide Cocozza is an artist, teacher of painting, graphic, and scenographic disciplines, art therapist, and Italian art curator. He currently lives and works in the city of Monopoli (Bari - Apulia - Italy). He was born in Bari on November 16, 1982, and attended the Giuseppe De Nittis Artistic High School in Bari. At the age of 17, he moved to Rome to graduate in 2004 in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Via di Ripetta, earning a score of 110 with honors out of 110. His teachers include Sandro Trotti, Costantino Baldino, Moreno Bondi, Sergio Lombardo, and Giampaolo Berto. During his years at the Academy, he also attended the Free School of the Nude in Rome. He obtained the qualification of museum operator at the LAZIO REGION through internships at the NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART (GNAM) and other galleries (Monitor, Mascherino in Rome). In these years, he is among the most active artists in the Roman scene, both as a painter and as an event organizer. Together with a friend, he creates a music project and forms the band "the Bangla Boys," where Davide Cocozza will be the vocalist under the pseudonym Dave Dacoda. Defining their music as "humor rock," they perform on numerous occasions, entertaining the audience. After the Academy, he attends a Master's program in Art Therapy Methods and Intervention Techniques at the FREE UNIVERSITY OF THE HOLY MARY ANNUNCIATION IN ROME (LUMSA) and becomes an art therapist through an internship at the BAMBINO GESÙ PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL IN ROME. He then moves to Frosinone to obtain a teaching qualification in the subject of PAINTING, GRAPHICS, AND SCENOGRAPHY at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frosinone. In Frosinone, he also creates numerous exhibitions, performances, and events alongside other artists and friends, such as Rocco Lancia, Milton, and Fausta Dumano. After obtaining his qualification in 2009, he begins his teaching career in the Abruzzo city of Penne, at the Mario De Fiori Artistic High School and the Mario Giardini Middle School. He later teaches at the Gabriele D'Annunzio Classical High School in Pescara, the ITIS DA VINCI in Borgomanero, the Edgardo Simone Artistic High School in Brindisi, and currently at the Luigi Russo Artistic High School in Monopoli. Highlights include the artistic direction of the painting section of the Marte Live event in Rome; collaboration with NuFactory; Semintesta, and many other organizational entities in Lazio; the organization of more than 1,000 events, including the artistic direction and curation of SAVE BIENNALE in Pescara and POP CON 2019 (an international exhibition of pop and conceptual art), both held at the VITTORIA COLONNA MODERN ART MUSEUM in Pescara; SAVE BIENNALE 2021 at the San Giacomo Bastion in Brindisi (where over 100 artists participated); the artistic direction and curation of MAESTRO, an international biennial art event in the city of Monopoli in 2023; participation in over 100 exhibitions, both solo and group; including the solo exhibition "Santi miei e Gesti sacri," curated by Cesare Manzo, at the Cesare Manzo Gallery in Pescara; another at Atelier Montez in Rome; numerous collaborations with the worlds of art, cinema, and entertainment, such as the synergy with artist Franco Summa in the project "this city is my city"; with director Victor Perez in creating some artistic and scenic elements for the film ANOTHER LOVE; with the high fashion house Iacobuccyounes in the creation of various clothing and fashion pieces; and many more; participation and victories in international art exhibitions such as the D'ANNUNZIO AWARD and the BIBART Biennial of Art in Bari; and over 500 works acquired by collectors and private individuals, museums, and galleries worldwide, from Dubai to Los Angeles, Mexico City, Berlin, Paris, Grenoble, Rome, Venice, Milan, and others; including the University of Tokyo and the Lady Diana Foundation.
His art spreads across various media; from traditional painting in acrylic and oil to digital art and performance. He prefers painting on surfaces such as packing paper, handmade paper from the Amalfi paper mill, and canvas; the paint is used delicately, very soluble, often dripping; it becomes “dripping,” gestural, and “scribbled,” primitive and childlike. Precise and clear gestures punctuate harmonious faces, contrasting with other bold and free gestures that stretch the figures as if they are in "formation" or "creation"; the forms emerge in a process that transitions from sketch to completed work on the same support; the subjects are mostly female, including models, friends, and inspirations captured on the go; while animals become symbols of a language that speaks to everyone and is for everyone, the art becomes, in this case, social, a subtle denunciation rich in metaphors and mediated by intellect. In performance, the artist seeks himself, in an instinctive and free action; "art exposes," he says, and he truly undresses along with the model in search of the true sign, the present moment, and the awareness of the instant in which the action takes place. The performance becomes a pictorial or life gesture that seeks its meaning. A dance that begins and ends in a manifestation of emptiness where sensations and perceptions dissolve, leaving space for the untainted moment, which becomes the work itself. Other approaches, such as installations or design works, reveal themselves as experimental paths and forms of free or conceptual expression on different surfaces; cities, walls, spaces. In mixed media and digital art, he expresses concepts through an interpretative approach and provides meaning to the visual arts. The works in this case are vivid, intense, and profound scenes. States of awareness follow alongside drunken forms of nature, intoxicated by existence, illuminated by living and light.
Considering art as a language, Cocozza "speaks" through his works concepts, denunciations, words translated into forms, often to stimulate, awaken, and provoke reflection in others. In 2013, on November 16 at 1:10 PM, his daughter Sofia Bianca Piuma was born, with whom he shares a beautiful, colorful, playful, and deep relationship, filled with understanding and kindness. With Sofia Bianca Piuma, he creates works of art, illustrated stories for children, and much more. Together with his father, he exhibited at the pop and conceptual art exhibition POPCON 2019 at the VITTORIA COLONNA MODERN ART MUSEUM in Pescara, becoming the youngest Italian artist to exhibit in a modern art museum; in 2021, he once again exhibited with his father at the Contemporary Art Biennale for a New World (SAVE BIENNALE 2021) in the city of Brindisi, at the San Giacomo Bastion. In the Italian art scene, he stands out as one of the most versatile representatives of figurative art and contemporary performance art.
Events at Rome Art Week
2024
Event by invitation only
Vernissage Friday 04 Oct 2024 | 17:00-21:00
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