Nicoletta Ceccoli Archives

Italian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli (featured) has a new exhibition entitled “Girls Don’t Cry” on now at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle.

Ceccoli has made a name for herself illustrating children’s books, including winning the prestigious Italian Anderson Prize for best illustrator of the year in 2001. She recently has been showing paintings in US galleries and has already has already garnered great demand for her allegorical, luminous, dream-like paintings, which usually feature characters in occasionally provocative Alice-In-Wonderland type scenarios. Painted in acrylic on paper, each work is meticulously crafted to the point where brush stokes disappear, and each image seems to float within it’s own hazy light.

“Girls Don’t Cry” runs through February 4, 2012. To see more from this exhibition, visit Roq La Rue Gallery. To see previous works, visit NicolettaCeccoli.com.

Nicoletta Ceccoli was born in San Marino, Italy and graduated from the Institute of Art in Urbino where she studied animation cinema.

While Ceccoli is gaining recognition as a painter, she is already well known as an award winning children’s book illustrator. Working with publishers in Italy, the US, and the UK, some of her credits include The Faery’s Gift, Fiendish Deeds (Joy of Spooking), Horns and Wrinkles, and Oscar and the Mooncats. In 2001, Nicoletta was awarded with the Andersen prize as best Italian illustrator of the year. She is also a four time recipient of the ‘Award of Excellence’ from Communication Arts. As well, in 2006 she received the silver medal from Society of Illustrators (New York).

With influences such as Remedios Varo, Domenico Gnoli, Paolo Uccello, Mark Ryden, Edward Gorey, Winsor McKay, and Ray Caesar, Ceccoli creates her own unique style of surrealism with doll-like characters and other strange creatures that are darkly whimsical.

Ceccoli’s work has been exhibited at numerous galleries including Roq la Rue (Seattle), Magic Pony (Toronto), Dorothy Circus (Rome), and the Richard Goodall Gallery (Manchester). Her illustrations have been shown at the Bologna Children’s Book fair seven times.

For more information about Nicoletta Ceccoli, visit her website at NicolettaCeccoli.com.com. There is also a great interview at Arrested Motion.