Stefano Coccioli

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When I do artistic decoration I am always motivated to find out more, to experience more, to research more, and this has always driven me forward.

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After graduating from Hajech Art School in Milan in 1974, Stefano Coccioli took to a life at sea, attracted by the freedom and sense of discovery this gave him. This life also gave him the opportunity to put himself on the line: not taking the easy route has always characterised his life as an artist. After a decade skippering boats around the Mediterranean, he then returned to Milan.

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This return marked the beginning of a new direction and a path towards the use of traditional decorative techniques which Stefano recreated under the guidance of expert craftsmen specialised in the restoration of eighteenth and nineteenth century mansions and palaces in Lombardy.

He later developed a passion for decorative simulated marble while studying at the Ecole Renaissance in Paris in 1988.

 

He went on to apply this technique and achieve complete artistic autonomy. Not only did he work in conservation and decorative restorations of stately homes in Tuscany, Sicily, France and the United States, he also immersed himself in the creation of ornamental plaster panels for customers all over the world, from Italy and Switzerland to Australia, Japan and America.

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Stefano has been exhibiting permanently at the Elektra Gallery a Sausalito.

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I have always seen myself as a ‘researcher-worker’. Research, reading and experimentation are essential in order to be able to push the boundaries.

 

And it is precisely this research that led to the desire to learn the ancient art of scagliola, an art handed down by a small group of skilled artisans in Valsesia (Piemonte). In the 18th century Valsesian artisans developed special skills in working with scagliola, perfecting an already existing technique of imitating marble to produce pieces of an exceptional quality.

After this period of specialisation, new phases of experimentation and production took place. Stefano’s tables took shape as a union of the past and the present, of materials and colour, together with chromatic effects transmitting the feel of India and Africa.

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Colours transmit intense vibrations: this is what gives me the drive to push the boundaries and the patience to wait for a final result to materialise after the multiple steps of the creation of each individual piece.

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