Franco Crocco

Franco Crocco is an artist born in Rome in 1964. He is known not only for his contribution to contemporary painting, but also for his social and educational commitment. From a young age, Crocco developed a passion for art, also thanks to his father Alfredo, himself a painter, who led him to explore a variety of painting techniques and styles. His studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma led Franco Crocco's painting towards a path in which the chromatic vibrations of form and its material elaboration come together, in order to capture colour in its essence and its nature. Moreover, during his years at the Accademia, he was a pupil of Enzo Brunori, an Umbrian artist and leading exponent of the "Astratto-Concreto" group theorised in 1952 by Lionello Venturi, and of Duilio Rossoni. The painter is interested not so much in the completed work as in the fascinating stage of the creative process, in which the work changes and evolves with respect to its initial perspective. This evolution also leads the artist to reconsider the material with which he works, discovering the manifold facets of recycling discarded objects. The meaning of the work expands through contact with themes linked to society and sustainability, developing a new series of cyclical works inspired by the laws of Gestalt and by accumulations. This new artistic conception led Franco Crocco to collaborate with the women's section of the Casa Circondariale di Rebibbia in Rome on the project "#Avanzi di galera", created by the inmates of the Roman prison themselves. The project concluded with the creation of a three-dimensional work exhibited at the MACRO in Rome in 2019. The artistic activity involved decorating used cigarette packets, which were subsequently assembled on a large panel. In this way, the work becomes a moment of reflection on prison conditions and a message about the sustainable recovery of used materials. The panel was later donated to the prison. This aspect fits within the teaching activity, in which the painter has many years of experience. Over the course of his career, Franco Crocco has had the opportunity to exhibit his works in Italy and abroad, in prestigious cultural institutions and in private and public galleries.