PIERMARQ* is pleased to present the inaugural Australian solo exhibition of Milan based artist Cosimo Casoni, Aspettando Il Sole (Waiting for the Sun). Working at the intersect of high and low culture, Casoni seamlessly amalgamates characteristics of hip-hop and post-vandalic aesthetic with sophisticated Contemporary practice. His unique approach to mark making, and his employment of the skateboard as a medium, was largely influenced by the freedom, technique and creativity of free-stylers - an underground subculture in which Casoni has been immersed in since his youth. Casoni’s artistic process is activated by his acute attention to the details of his urban environment and a fascination of these unexplored visual geographies.
Casoni’s most recent body of work, Fingertricks, inspired primarily by the lack of access to paint brushes during Italy’s COVID-19 quarantine, demonstrates the development of the artist’s aforementioned aesthetic to a new analysis of the urban environment of Milan. Casoni began to contemplate the evocative power of fingerprints as his mark making conjured memories of the smeared prints left on vehicles by truck drivers. Casoni states “Often, when I find myself driving on the highway, I glance at the rear sides of the trucks I have in front of me, and I can’t help seeing them as large sized canvases in which a form of simplified and pure abstraction is allowed to break free.”
