Ilaria Bochicchio's Powerful Paintings of Female Corporeality

Ilaria Bochicchio, a 30-year-old artist from Rivello, Basilicata, has built a prolific career in just seven years, with about 50 group shows and 30 solo exhibitions across Italy, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. She studied at IED Rome and MiMaster Milan, where she now lives. Her practice spans illustration, graphic design, painting, video, installation, performance, directing, and event organizing. Last summer, she brought contemporary art to her hometown with the provocative action 'Corpus Domini' in a church, which garnered unexpected attention and approval. The article focuses on her powerful painting, which depicts large, explosive, and tender female bodies, drawing comparisons to Francis Bacon and Jenny Saville. Her series 'Chambres' imagines a hotel where female figures are presented as meat ready to be cut, with emphasis on erogenous zones like nipples and vulvas, highlighted by violent chromatic shifts. Bochicchio explains that the cuts start from the inviting red vaginal slit. The work, while shocking, is an act of love for femininity, rooted in her Southern Italian background where female bodies are still subject to archaic prejudices. Eros here is primarily empathy, a quality the male author notes is difficult for men to achieve.