Cosimo Cavallaro was born in Montreal in 1961. The son of Italian immigrants, Cavallaro was raised both in Canada and Italy. He attended art school in various countries before setting up shop as a sculptor in Montreal in the early 1980’s .
Eventually Cosimo fell into film direction when a film director friend asked him to help out on a movie set. Within days he was assisting in set design. Soon he was a full time production designer working first on features and then on TV commercials. Directing became the natural progression. As a TV commercial film director Cavallaro won numerous awards including the Director of the year in Canada and the 1990 Canadian Film Festival Juno award for best music video.
Although film and video monopolized the majority of Cavallaro’s time in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, his art remained evident in all his work and foremost in his mind. In 1995 he moved to New York where he began focusing all of his time on creating art. His work speaks to a variety of audiences and expresses (in his own words) “the struggle between need and desire; the known and unknown; the warm security of the womb and the chill uncertainty of the world.”
In 2011 he relocated to Los Angeles and began a new vision.
Cavallaro’s mediums range from photography (Nudes, Bike seats, Blinders on Donkey, fruit, fish in bowl, ) to large sand blasted steel sculptures ( Knot series) to installations using perishables, (Chocolate Jesus, Cheese house, Cheese room, Chocolate saints, Ketchup room, Absolute pressed Ham bed, Candy chair, Twiggy In Cheese to rubber sculptures (inflatable piano, shovel,) and most recently fiberglass resin sculptures in the shape of Jelly Beans. (Love your Bean), (ARROWS) Polished Stainless Steel sculptures.
His work has attracted massive media coverage, CNN – Anderson Cooper, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, CNBC, PBS- So cal, major art magazines, educational journals, major national and international newspapers, Time magazine, Global Japan Television, People magazine, Harpers, Associated Press, etc.
EXHIBITIONS
2014 TRANS ANGELS Kuntsmuseum Wilhelm- Morgner - Haus, Soest, Germany
2013 LOVE YOUR BEAN a large scale installation in West Hollywood Park, Los Angeles
2013 NYE+BROWN Gallery Los Angeles California, Voluminosity
2012 "Summer of Jack", Jelly Bean sculptures, Katherine Cone gallery Los Angeles, CA
2011 Lumiere Sculpture park and museum St. Louis, Mo. Knot sculpture
2009 Orange Expression Saint - Hyacinthe Quebec Canada, I was here
2008 The Proposition Gallery NY, NY . Chocolate Jesus and Chocolate Saints show
2007 Lab Gallery NYC, NY. Chocolate Jesus Show was canceled because of a protest from the Catholic church.
2004 Lab Gallery NY,NY .Absolute Pressed Ham
2003 Ingrid Raab Gallery-Berlin Germany,Burning Piano
2003 Art Gallery - College of Arts & Sciences, Fort Myers, FL Burning Piano
2002 Denise Bibro Fine Art Gallery, New York NY: Cheese Jacket, Marshmallow Jacket
2002 South Shore Art Center, Cohasset MA: Burning Piano
2002 Burning Piano, Toronto ONT: Burning Piano
2001 Cheese House Wyoming, Powell WY: House In Cheese
2000 Cedarhurst Sculpture Museum, Mt. Vernon IL: Bicycle Seats
1999 Downtown Arts Festival, New York NY: Twiggy In Cheese
1999 Washington Jefferson Hotel, New York NY: Room 114
1998 Nese & Alpan Gallery, Roslyn NY: Pillows
1998 Cedarhurst Sculpture Museum, Mt. Vernon IL: Knot
1998 Stevens George Gallery, Hammond IN: Nudes
1998 Chicago Children's Museum, Chicago IL: Knot
1998 Moo Boo Gallery, Berkley CA: Nude
1998 Pier Walk, Chicago IL: Knot
1998 Armory Art Center, Palm Beach FL: Kiddie Ride
1998 Wood Street Gallery, Chicago IL: Pillows
1998 De Corvada Museum and Sculpture Park, Boston MA: Knot
1998 Krasel Art Center, Chicago IL: Pillows
1998 Center For Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA: Kiddie Ride
1997 Real Art Ways Contemporary Art Space, Hartford CT: Birth, Pillows, and Railings
1996 SoHo Arts Festival, New York NY: Birth and Pillows
