Sandro Cocco

After years of observing and drawing from nature (models, still lifes, interiors, landscapes), I was looking for a method of working that could keep an adventure for myself and surprised of my own work.

I discovered the technique of 'écriture automatique' (automatic drawing) in 1996. My working method is the following: I start drawing directly on an empty sheet of paper with Indian ink (without a sketch in pencil). I start drawing a few lines. I decide a shape somewhere on the paper. And this shape dictates me what I have to draw next to keep the composition 'in balance'. I don't have a plan, I don't know what is going to appear. That's exactly the state of mind I want or need to create. I started my abstract 'Amorphous' series in 1996 with this method.

In 2005 I visited a friend and discovered a Surrealist painting on his wall that reminded me of the works by the painter Giorgio de Chirico. The use of symbols in this painting invited me to begin the series 'Imaginary Rooms' in which I use for the first time visually recognisable elements in the hope to be able to communicate more with the viewer. But my working method kept the same. All the 'Imaginary Rooms' are made with the same technique of 'écriture automatique'. I hope that...

1994-1998 Master of Fine Arts in Painting, Charles the Great Academy
2001-2003 Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design (Comics and Illustration), Saint-Luke Academy

Group Exhibitions

1998 'Coming Out', Provincial center, Antwerp
1998 'Room of ideas', KDG-building, Groenplaats, Antwerp
1998 Nine, installations, Bruges
1999 'Twenty Photo Collages', Cultural Center Warande, Turnhout
2003 Art Week, Renaix
2004 Art Week, Renaix
2005 Art Week, Renaix
2006 Fabric of Culture, Renaix
2020 'Mouvement #6', Group exhibition, Cultural Center, Rochefort

Solo Exhibitions
1998 'Painting in evolution', installation, studio, Antwerp
1998 'Bath', installation in public space, Antwerp
1998 'My studio as an aquarium', installation, studio, Antwerp
1998 Total Installation', Antwerp
2000 Solo, Antwerp
2001 'The Visit', Ghent
2002 'The Other Side', Ghent
2009 'Duo', watercolors, Naha, Okinawa, Japan
2013 'L'Autre Côté', Rochefort
2017 'Motz en Folie, Dinant
2017 Solo, drawings, Art University, Namur
2017 'Imaginary Rooms', Rochefort
2018 Solo 'Welcome to Wallonia', Rochefort