Vincenzo Cohen

Vincenzo Cohen (birth name, Vincenzo Curcio) is an Italian multidisciplinary artist. He was born in Zurich (Switzerland) and after spending his childhood in South Italy he moved to Rome to undertake academic studies. In 2002 he graduated in Painting from Fine Arts Academy and in 2005 he held his first Solo Exhibition. In 2007 he achieved the master's degree in Archaeological Sciences from the "La Sapienza" University in Rome. His production ranges from figurative arts to writing and consists in reworking of life and travel experiences by exploring different social themes. As a polyhedric artist his production is the result of a continuous process of historical-scientific research addressed to the representation of cultural and naturalistic content. Artist uses to travel in search of sources of inspiration and declares that his artistic path is like a long jouney in search of hisself and existential answers. Over the years his art has opened up to new experimental languages through an eclectic production with different media and styles. The artist has a great passion for nature that distinguishes him from birth and pushes him to engage in environmental awareness projects. In the last stage of his production the artist explores the concepts of human resilience and social diversity through the body expression and its capacity to adapt and resist adversity.

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Imposing wilderness

Imposing wilderness tells about the fascination that one feels in remote and boundless places,
where the mind is transported through a different perception of space. The imposing desert
of our imagination, that scares us, but also fascinates immensely us for its extraordinary
beauty. Deserts are believed to be arid places, devoid of life, but in reality, they are magical
places, that survive at night and teem with life forms. These photos were taken during some
trips to African countries such as Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Morocco. The nature
photography focuses on the landscape desertification highlighting the preciousness of
suggestive places such as the Kalahari desert, the Kunene region with its visionary landscape
of the Skeleton coast and the Nothern Sahara region. Pictures tell of the emotion of
remaining fascinated by landscapes of rare beauty where the mind is carried away by the
imagination. The image of the road often recurs in this production as a symbol of connection
between man and nature allowing of connecting people to places, to reach landscapes
sometimes considered unattainable. Roads crossing wastelands and deserts become an
expression of collective and social resilience and human adaptability. However, they also
represent the result of man’s transformative action significantly changing the landscape and
consequently affecting the animal survival. The landscape desertification is a problem that
affects not only Africa but all those areas called hot spots. Deserts are gradually becoming
metaphysical spaces, deprived of life forms due to the progressive advance of the phenomena
of overheating and desertification (according to The World Atlas of desertification the 75% of
the earth’s surface is now affected by desertification). These phenomena depend on several
factors (lack of eco-sustainable methods, depletion of terrains and vegetation, use of energy
forms from fossil fuels, seabed exploitation, deforestation, advance of fires, etc.) which affect
the ecosystem through the release of CO2 into the atmosphere and contribute to the
alteration of the carbon cycle and the intensification of climate change. The photographic
project has a narrative cut with sequences in progression and try to represent a conceptual
journey. The occasional presence of animals represents an emotional meeting by focusing on
the magicality of a moment in which what you didn’t expect to see, suddenly appears. They
represent the great resistance and capacity of adaptation to climate change by surviving in
extreme conditions. This project focuses on the values of biodiversity and respect for natural
ecosystems by referring to the advancement of overheating and desertification and inducing
a collective reflection of extreme importance for our future on the impact that human
activities exert on the environment

Artist Statement

"I believe that every artist has a secret to reveal that pushes him to continuously create. The
creative process of my work born from life and travel experiences. My artistic path is like a
long jouney in search of myself and existential answers. I travel a lot looking for sources of
inspiration for my artistic repertoire. I use oil and gouache techniques and supports such as
canvas and paper. I use also photography to capture images to be reworked through artistic
techniques. Over the years my artistic practice has passed through different stages and
evolutions due to personal and professional experiences. During my artistic activity, painting,
writing and photography are closely connected, since in my imagery, the creative process is a
flow that sweeps towards different artistic forms merging in a poetic vision of existence. My
pictorial and photographic collections summarize my artistic research. My production is
mostly focused on the theme of nature and related environmental issues, since childhood,
when after a trip to Africa I suffered from a strong pain of Africa. At the age of eleven, that
first contact with African nature aroused emotions that have deeply affected my existential
perspective. For this reason I have tried to give a social meaning to my work by engaging in
the preservation of the environment and in the fight against climate change. In painting I
have always been interested also to the exploration of the human body and to the
representation of unconscious content that influence the human expression. I use to paint
historical portraits inspired by myths and archetypes of ancient peoples and cultures but also
subjetcs taken from daily life. These figures often stand out from a neutral background to
focus all the attention on the subject. They are generally depicted in hermetic expressions and
twisted postures to emphasize the need for psychological introspection. In the last
production I explore the concepts of human resilience and social diversitiy through the body
expression and its capacity to adapt and resist adversity." Vincenzo Choen