Davide Cocozza - Insieme di pomeriggio

Davide Cocozza – Together in the afternoon

Acrylic and ink on 300-gram paper, 50 x 70 cm.

Together in the afternoon is a portrait born in a state of balance between presence and fading, between appearance and disappearance. The face emerges from the paper like a still-warm memory, imbued with emotions and distances that cannot be measured in space, but only in shared time.

The work is built almost entirely in shades of gray: an essential palette made of white, black, and light washes, which conveys the soft vibration of ink and the instinctive roughness of acrylic. The brushstrokes are quick, lively, almost impulsive; they do not simply depict a face but its emotional tension, the fragile intimacy that spreads between the eyes, the fold of the nose, the creasing of the mouth.

Lips — crimson, lively, irregular — break the silent monochrome of the face. They are a flash of desire, word, and wound all at once. A detail that becomes the beating heart of the image: declaration, memory, promise. The red is the 'afternoon' evoked by the title, a warm light that enters the black and white of the soul and accompanies, almost hand in hand, the viewer and the watched.

The figure is not fully defined: it vibrates within its own outline, blurs, thins out, and slumps at the edges. It is a face that seems close, very close, yet also distant, like a fleeting encounter that continues to live in the air. A portrait that tells of the value of being together even just for an afternoon, when time ceases to be chronological and becomes shared intimacy.

The input is a dash character, which does not require translation.

Artist biography – Davide Cocozza

Davide Cocozza (Bari, November 16, 1982) is an Italian visual artist, performer, teacher, and art therapist. He lives and works in Monopoli. His research combines painting, performance, innovative materials, and ethical-humanitarian practices, focusing on themes of the environment, animal rights, social fragilities, and the interdependence among living beings.

He graduated from the Artistic High School 'De Nittis' in Bari and earned a cum laude degree in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where he also attended the Free School of the Nude. He received training and completed an internship in art therapy at LUMSA and the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, and has worked as a museum operator at the National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM).

His work includes pictorial and performative series such as Like a Zoo, TARGET, Buddha Rising, Alchimia del Carbone, Like a Man, Homo Ludens, Gesti Sacri, Paper Sign, EGOLOGIA. The works are characterized by a strong emotional, symbolic, and spiritual charge, with a language that oscillates between expressive gesture, poetic denunciation, and resistance icons. He often uses sustainable materials like biochar and handmade Amalfi paper, integrating ecological practices into his visual poetry.

She has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in Italy and abroad, including Arte in Nuvola, Maestro Biennale, SAVE Biennale, The Others, Peach Vibration, PopCon, Bibart Biennale, and Biennale MArteLive. Her works are part of private and institutional collections, including The Princess & The Platypus Foundation – The Princess Diana Museum (USA) and the University of Tokyo.

Cocozza is the artistic director of the MAESTROBIENNALE and a teacher of Painting and Graphic Disciplines at the 'Luigi Russo' Art High School in Monopoli. His art, deeply marked by a humanitarian ethic, serves as an invitation to awareness, care, and solidarity towards all forms of life.