CECILIA COSCI
530 West 25th Street, New York, NY
One evening, gazing at the collection of art books in her Florentine apartment, art historian Cecilia Cosci felt the urge to cut them up. As she scissored pages of old masterpieces, the inert figures started coming to life and forming stories in her imagination, which she later laid down on paper. ‘Montages,’ Cosci likes to call them; not static, but dynamic storyboards arranged like stills of a movie. In the guise of a film director, Cosci borrows characters from Renaissance masterpieces, staging powerful visual narratives with a Dadaist-Surrealist flair. Playing God, just for a moment, the artist casts her divine eye on us humans, unearthing the iniquities of our society with a mix of irony, compassion, and subtle condemnation. Through minimalist, yet striking visuals Cosci tells universal stories of love, motherhood, inequality, and faith. Her saints, gods, and Madonnas are torn from the heavenly realms onto the land of common mortals to act out the tragedies of this world.
Cosci holds a degree in Literature and Philosophy with a minor in Art History from Università degli Studi di Firenze. A budding artist, she had a solo exhibition at Tobian Art Gallery in Florence in May 2021 and received coverage in prestigious Italian newspapers such as Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica. Cosci lives and works in Florence, Italy.
CECILIA COSCI ON
I use images from old masterpieces and build thought-provoking narratives, which I arrange like stills of a movie. The figures I borrow are not only works of art, but living beings in flesh and blood, and it is through their humanity that I tell universal stories of love, motherhood, inequality, and faith. During the creative process, which can last months, my conscious and unconscious self take turns, selecting, combining, and making connections between what I know and feel, until I discover something new. I believe art makes us free and my work fulfills an irrepressible desire for freedom; freedom to be who I really am, without the burden of any rules. For inquiries, sales@agora-gallery.com
530 West 25th Street, New York, NY 212-226-4151 Fax: 212-966-4380
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