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Rocco-Cuzzi, known as "Rocco" was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied fine arts at the National School of Fine Arts, receiving a degree in 1999 as a professor of painting. He currently teaches painting at the Michael Ham Memorial College in Buenos Aires. He has had solo shows in Buenos Aires and Milan, Italy.
Rocoo-Cuzzi's work searches for visual ways to reconcile contemporaneousness and primitivism. His primitive figures in the foreground of his paintings merge with vividly contemporary backgrounds, reminding us of our common origins. Influences range from Jungian dream images, Iberian wall drawings, altar-like structures such as Stonehenge, and artist as diverse as Mark Rothko and Anselm Kiefer.
Rocco writes, "My work shows stone altars containing hidden messages. In order to build them, I use ashes as this element has a great symbolic power to me. This is what remains after the fire has burnt and destroyed, but also purified."
Rocco sees his paintings as a way of communicating with God, either as a feeling of gratitude, a request, or at times an offering. His repetition of altar forms reinforces his awe of sacred places as sanctuaries where encounters between humans and the divine may take place.
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