Icona onirica VIII Print

Maya Kokocinski was born in Santiago in Chile in 1970 and is a naturalized Italian citizen. She is the daughter of the artist Alessandro Kokocinski and the Argentine actress Prudencia Molero. Maya lived and breathed art from her early childhood onwards, yet her interests seem to be directed more towards archeology, psychology and palaeontology. A gap year in London before starting univeristy made her realizes her true vocation was for art. She remained unconvinced by her academic training in London with its focus on the idea that a piece of art should start from scratch, forgetting what has gone before it. At this point she began to rediscover her roots, the paintings of the Old Masters, the passion for traditional techniques. From being a conceptual artist, she became a figurative classical painter. Her main interest is now focused on the human form: faces, bodies, portraits and glances. Her representations are not hyper-realistic, but are rather a psychological analysis, a mirror of essential feelings and uneasiness. Kokocinski Molero started exhibiting in solo exhibitions in 1997 at the Fundacion Internacional Jorge Luis Borges in Buenos Aires. The same year, Oliviero Toscani presented her show at the Watatu gallery in Nairobi. In 1999 she exhibited at the Italian Cultural Institute of Addis Ababa and at the Sara Garcia Uriburu Gallery in Buenos Aires. In 2004 at the Institute of Culture in Brussels and at the Lotus Lifestyle Gallery in Bangkok, the following year at the Agua Museum in Lisbon. Amongst the group exhibitions Anthology of contemporary figuration - Italy: The latest generations Teckne international Figurae, Milan stands out, as does “l'inquietudine del volto” , from Lotto to Freud, from Tiziano to De Chirico, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, Lodi. In 2005 her work was also exhibited at the "Italian Banquet" in the National Museum of Bau Tao, Mongolia, China and in Beijing, presented by Claudio Strinati. In 2006 Kokocinski Molero won the 57th edition of the Michetti Prize curated by Philippe Daverio with the painting "passi Lontani". She was also proposed by Oliviero Toscani in the 54th Venice Biennale, at the Italian Pavilion, where she exhibited an installation together with her father Alessandro. Kokocinski Molero lives and works in Rome and is married to the figurative painter Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni with whom she shares a studio near the Botanic Gardens, in Trastevere.