Coco Riot

“Creative Conversations series” Colectivo Toronto is focusing on exchange of ideas, to generate a conceptual discussion sharing creative process, techniques and knowledge.

Presentation

DRAWING THE SILENCE(D)

As a professional artist using mainly drawing as a medium, Coco's work aims to tell stories, mostly of what is not revealed to the eye but lives within our everyday reality, specially those emotions, events and situations that are been kept hidden or secret because of social powers, government censorship and cultural normativity. Coco explores secrecy, silence and how drawing may become a tool for revealing, and therefore, making the audience and the artist aware. In this sense, Coco is committed to an art that is sensitive and critical, that plays with different layers of complexity, but remains accessible and open to all audiences.

In this presentation Coco will be sharing the process of research, creation and exhibition of one of their recent pieces "Los Fantasmas". This hand-drawn series reveals the silenced genocide committed by Franco fascist troops against civilians and left-wing organizers in Spain and Coco will use it as a concrete example to discuss the methodologies, challenges and rewards of working with collective traumas and secrets.

Born in Southern Spain in 1979 in a family of biologist, I spent most of my childhood drawing and copying painting masterpieces. After a first year of undergraduate studies in Spain, I moved to Paris where I obtained a MBA in Comparative Literature, followed by a BA by the Fine Arts School in Toulouse. In 2006 I moved to Canada, first to Montreal and then to Toronto, where I have been living and working as a professional artist since 2012.

Presentation at Pio! Centre for drawing.

www.cocoriot.com