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People

I moved to London in January 2017 so it was inevitable to join an art residency in Tuscany, eventually. 

Going back to making art in Italy, living together with fabulous people from the UK, USA and Canada was a unique and enriching experience. 

Most of the participants were from California so I’ve got a chance to exchange opinions about art and lifestyle in Italy and abroad, which I found always very intresting and inspiring. Shannon Milar, one of the visiting artists and co-founder of Catalyst Art Retreat, is a well-known printmaker who studied, among others, at Il Bisonte workshop in Florence. She introduced me to the art of woodcarving, which I experienced for the first time and that gave me unexpected emotions and satisfaction. The other works I’ve made during my staying were inspired by the urban landscape of the city of Lucca and the people who lived in the villa during this week. In addition to having the opportunity to focus on my work in a sun-lighted and well-equipped studio, the nature surrounding Casa Berti has been very inspiring and, invited by Shannon to create a sort of “graffiti” in the environment, I selected a rock, split in two by someone or something before me, and just addad some oil painting which I’ve found in the studio. When packing to come here I didn’t packed ’cause I planned to be inspired by the place; I then used what my friends artists so generously shared with me and the materials found in the studio or in the olive grove around Casa Berti.

What I also found very inspiring and uncommon was that the studio was equipped with a huge hi-fi set and given the good taste of the host, plenty of vinyls and CDs were in hand, giving me the opportunity to create surrounded by amazing and inspiring music. That’s the reason why I’ve decide to give titles to my works at the end of the residency such as “The Killers”, “The Stones” and “The talking heads”. 

Since I’ve moved in London my interest in depict people became stronger, given that this is a very big city, I found looking at people and the way they dress and talk and walk a never ending source of inspiration. My first job when I arrived in the city was as visitor service assistant in the American dream pop to the present exhibiton at the British museum, a show mostly about printmaking. Inspired by the artworks and the visitors of the show  I started making drawing  with markers and using a tablet, of the people looking at the artworks, since it really stroke me how the contemporary people releate to the artworks dating from the 60s to nowadays. I’ve also been dedicating my days off from work to exploring my bourough, Hackney, which is undergoing a changing but it’s still very diverse and colorful. It’s funny how I’m focusing on people in a city with one of the most impressive architecture examples but I guess it’s because I tend to focus on small and unexpected things (which are the people, in this case), instead of the screamed ones. I think that’s why, during Catalyst Art Retreat I also dedicate a lot of time depicting the people living and working in Casa Berti (starting with a young man from Ivory Coast who was working at picking olives at that time) at that time, which made the series titled “Talking heads”.

It happens very often to me to use the 3 “R” (reduce, reuse, recycle) with my art too, and so I choose to draw on magazines pages. These pages are neither tracing nor light, these are pages with more luxurious advertisings, so with more “white” space for me. On them I draw people I see in the streets, but also things I see around. I design the design, clothes, objects, buildings. I started it to not waste, then I look at these drawings and I realize that the things I portrayed and the story on the magazine (ads, editorial, article) talk to each other. It is a random encounter but the conversation that comes out is always interesting, as most of the things that casually happen. They talk of high and low art, of haute couture and pret-a-porter, of important and less important arts, of how you can put all these labels on every aspect of human life and how these labels are quite useless.

People

  • Efthymios
    Marker on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Efthymios 2
    Marker on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • M
    Marker on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • At the canteen
    Marker on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Break
    Marker on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Playing at Voodo's Ray Dalston
    Marker and oil pastel on paper cm 43 x 29, 2018

  • Gix
    Digital drawing, 2018

  • Lunch breack outside the British Museum
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Ikea
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Newington Green Bus Stop
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • The wanderer series Broadway Market 2
    Marker on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Reading a book on the bus
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • PM on the bus
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Bread and Butter Cafè
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Waiting for the bus
    Digital Drawing, 2017

  • The Memebership team at British Museum
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Stoke Newington Signs
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Overgoround
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Lunch time at the British Museum canteen
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Fashion details on the bus
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Museumgoer at Tate
    Digital drawing on photograph, 2017

  • Reading book on the bus
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Bread and Butter cafè 2
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Man with a dog
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Woman with a dog
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Back at the British Museum
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Book on a bus
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • At the National Gallery
    Digital drawing, 2017

  • Paco at The Book Club
    Mixed media on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Red wine
    Mixed media on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Rossella at The Book Club
    Mixed media on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Red lips at The Book Club
    Mixed media on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Interview at The Book Club
    Mixed media on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • Art at The Book Club
    Mixed media on paper cm 21 x 15, 2017

  • mary cinque 26 grains london

    mary cinque 26 grains london
    mary cinque 26 grains london

  • A pause by Mary Cinque

    A pause by Mary Cinque
    A pause by Mary Cinque

  • Afternoon at the Palace

    Afternoon at the Palace
    Afternoon at the Palace

  • mary cinque 60 bayston london

    mary cinque 60 bayston london
    mary cinque 60 bayston london

  • Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 14

    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 14
    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 14

  • Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 15

    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 15
    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 15

  • Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 16

    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 16
    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 16

  • Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 17

    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 17
    Mary Cinque The Wanderer London 2019 17

  • Victoria Park Market, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque

    Victoria Park Market, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque
    Victoria Park Market, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque

  • At Five Guys, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque

    At Five Guys, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque
    At Five Guys, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque

  • Paco in bed, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque

    IMG_1507Paco in bed, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque
    Paco in bed, oil pastel on paper by Mary Cinque