American Ex-Patriot, Joshua Cosimo Responds to Art Reviews and Discusses Upcoming Projects in Italy

Artist and designer Joshua Cosimo, an American ex-patriot living in Italy, has spent six years in Europe designing clothing, and creating “controversial” art pieces using religious and historical references. “I try to be as reverent as possible, and non-offensive, however I don’t understand how anatomy, and questioning institutions can be offensive,” said Cosimo. He refers to himself as a, “conceptual artist working in static visual media.”

“In his designs, artist Joshua Cosimo incorporates printmaking, deconstructive collage and overt sensuality into surprisingly elegant forms. Like disembodied post-modern references, his unique yet eminently wearable designs exist in a realm that is both savvy and transcendent of culture. Cosimo’s use of hand-died color is sophisticated; playful pastels and Renaissance reds belie their Italian heritage and suggest a delicate sumptuousness,” Design Historian and author, Courtney Marhev, said in a review of Cosimo’s work.

In a recent interview Joshua Cosimo commented on his art and inspiration saying, “I draw much inspiration from my Italian Heritage and the city of Florence where I spend most of my time. Our objective as artists is to take the beauty of the cosmopolitan art that is everywhere  and make it applicable, to understand what it means to be a human living in the postmodern world again”

Cosimo is preparing for a show in Florence on the twenty eighth of March at Galleria Alejandro Trappani, in the quartieri of San Niccolo, Florence, Italy. The series, Fragments from Villa Amphititrite, are mixed media interpretations of the walls of Villa Amphititrite. Cosimo was inspired by the museum of archeology in Naples, where they hold wall pieces taken from Pompeii. For him, when the walls were removed from their normal setting and context they developed a new meaning.  

In a closing statement Cosimo said, “I consider my artwork to be a promethean task that I try to take on with grace and skill. There is always an effort for resulting concepts to be  both germane and fresh. I think of them as discoveries we would all do well to explore.”

Contact Information

Joshua Cosimo

Artist

Cosimo Enterprises

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