JOSEPH COCO started his formal art training in 1970 at California's San Francisco Art Institute. Driven by an insatiable desire to depict his dreams while studying nature plen-aire, has led to a synthesis of naturalism and the visionary in art.

In 1974, Coco received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Northern Arizona University. Remaining in Flagstaff, Arizona through 1980, he produced ten solo exhibitions while performing regionally. The influence of his studio partners of five years, John Running/photographer and Luis Tomas, artist-designer, gave him an appreciation for Native American, Mexican culture, mythology and a distinct use of color.

Initially his interests in naturalism and symbolism led to research in "synethesia" (correlations between color and sound) creating soundtracks and video for the painting and drawing series SOUND IMAGE / FALLS RIVER and FOLIAGE. In 1986 the artist completed a Master Of Fine Arts degree at Rutgers University in New Jersey, studying with Leon Golub and Rafael Montanez Ortiz. 

SOLAR ECLIPSE AND A NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST, a series of 21 drawings, seeks to heal personal and societal fears of nuclear annihilation/isolation through dream imagery. SOLAR ECLIPSE has been touring the United States since 1984 with ten solo exhibitions to date. An accompanying video (co-produced with Daniel Cuoco), with his original soundtrack and drawings from the series have been included in over twenty invitational shows, such as the United Nations "Exhibition for A Nuclear Free Society".

THE LAST FULL MOON  is a continuing series, started in 1972. Each painting is started in December on the day the full moon rises. This project includes Coco's fascination with astronomy, astrology, geography and autobiography. In thirty consecutive years the theme includes over fifty paintings, which will continue into the 21st Century.  This may be the first series dedicated to the study of the moon by a single artist.  He is seeking major museums to exhibit this series.  (Contact Joseph to view a Power Point CD of this work)

As the Assistant Project and Press Director for the first INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF ART AND INVISIBLE REALITY in 1989, Coco assisted 67 artists participating in a seven day and evening conference produced by Rafael Montanez Ortiz.  The 74 events, of performance artists, native culture practitioners, scientists, psychologists and psychics in exhibitions, site specific sculptures and panel discussions was held at the Franklyn Furnace in New York City and Rutgers Galleries in, New Jersey.

With 51 solo shows in America and Europe, he has exhibited in over fiftyfour competitive and collective shows since 1970.  Four hundred paintings, drawings, prints and videos of Joseph's are collected in over two hundred and seventyfive public and private collections, including MOMA San Francisco; GULBENKIAN MUSEUM Lisbon; GALLERIA NAZIONALE DI ARTE CONTEMPORANEA, Rome; KRIDEL SECURITIES, Paris; and the INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Boston.  He currently teaches color theory, painting, drawing and Rock 'N Roll History as an Adjunct Professor in Montclair State and William Paterson University's in New Jersey.  Joseph's art and music, is truely the wealth of an inspired talent.

 

 

Foliage  "Pear Blossoms"  April 18th, 2000    Diptych 80"x30"  oil/canvas Passaic Park, NJ

 

 

Forsythia  Foliage Series April 28th, 2001  oil/canvas  40"x40"

The following selection IS from If Walls Could Speak are a series of 106 paintings are drawings "redefining the image of Sicily".  Premiering in December of 1996 in five galleries of Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, in Messina,, Sicily. The work has been exhibited in the Paterson Museum, New Jersey and the Italian Embassy's Institue of Italian Culture in San Francisco through out 1999.  This show is currently being planned for a major installation at the Ellis Island Statue of Liberty Immigration Museum, 2001. With 50 solo shows since 1972, over 400 works of Coco's are in over 275 public and private collections through out the United States and Europe including San Francisco's MOMA, the Galleria Nazionale Di Arte Contemporanea in Rome and the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, These narrative drawings reflect the influences of Sicily's rich mythology.  With all its robust chaos and eccentricities, Messina's fate had its history erased through centuries of earthquakes and the bombardment of WWII.  But on the morning of December 28th, 1908 Messina, suffered it's worst disaster, loosing more than half of its population, perishing by the tremor and devastating tidal wave that immediately followed.

"The movies picture trouble as red, white and green, but have you ever been to a place where trouble has never been?  The underworld is around your house, no matter who's to blame, but that's a different thing, so let me be the first to describe, spring in Sicily".
"Spring in Sicily" C 1995 Coco Luminarios Music,BMI

 

AfortE (Strength) oil pastel/paper  28"x20"  '95

 

Look into Sicilian faces and you will find the rich blood line's of historic epochs that include the Greeks, Romas, Arabs, Normans, Spanish etc. It's history as the crossroads of many civilizations has been a destiny that integrated diverse societies. Multi-racial tolerance?  Sicily has been an integrating point for all cultures and races of the Mediterranean since the Phonecians.

A