Beatrice Scaccia

Scaccia was born in Frosinone, Italy, in 1978.[3] She does not come from an artistic family; her father was a construction site manager and her mother was a primary school teacher. Scaccia believes that an experience of seeing a dead kitten at a young age had a large influence on her; that "becoming aware of mortality" at that intense moment in her childhood had perhaps unconsciously taken her onto an artistic path.[4]

She began her artistic career studying at Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, Italy,[5] where she met and started working with the artist Gino Marotta.[6] Beginning in 2007, she began to occasionally visit New York City.[4] In summer 2009, Scaccia entered a three-month studio-residency at Lower East Side Printshop in Manhattan, New York.[7] She later returned to New York in 2011 to establish a permanent residence there. According to Scaccia, the city has had an influence on her work, "freed it, and perhaps made it more playful, more conscious."[4]

Scaccia was trained as a realistic painter but after a few years, she abandoned that path, ridding herself of palettes, materials, and opting for drawings in pencils and gesso.[8] Her first solo exhibition He, she, it: masculine, feminine and neuter gender was exhibited at the Ugo Ferranti Gallery in Rome. It included a multitude of chronological sketches depicting a genderless individual grappling with their sexuality, attempting to dress in both feminine and masculine clothing, and with an ever-present strap-on sex toy among the various articles of attire. The sequence of developmental sketches culminated in a collection of monotype prints followed by three finished wax drawings.[9][10][11] In describing her technique, Scaccia says:[4]

First, I draw and/or paint; then I use warm gesso to give myself an idea of the space and the light in the piece; then I reinforce some areas with a collage of rice paper, especially on the edges and on some of the details. Finally, I pour warm beeswax on the whole image, and then, with the use of an iron for encaustic, I remove the excess wax, protecting the paper with pieces of cloth.

Her technique was influenced by how beeswax is used on furniture and similarly from its use in the Batik technique. She later incorporated paper techniques from workshops she attended in New York.[4]

In 2013, Scaccia exhibited her second body of work entitled The Perfect Stage at the BOSI Contemporary Gallery in New York. In the same period, she had begun working at the art studio of Jeff Koons.[12] In The Perfect Stage, the genderless character that is the subject of her work could be seen to take shape. The exhibition included a series of fifteen drawings, an audio narration, and two video installations.[3] These drawings also began to introduce color. Scaccia, who had previously abandoned painting, started in that body of work to gradually reintroduce colors back into her works but only in a single hue: a glazed, almost Flemish red.[7] The narrative voice played in the background was written by the artist and is similar to a theatrical monologue included "rhetorical questions… posed with dramatic humor and anguish, moods in which Scaccia engages in the inner battles of her character."[12] To create the animation, Scaccia had enrolled in a course at the School of Visual Art in Manhattan.[7]

In 2014, she began a residency at the Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York.[5] It was at Residency Unlimited's event space that she held her third solo exhibition entitled Little Gloating Eve in February 2014. The exhibition was presented again at the Effearte in Milan, Italy,[13] as well as at the Cuchifritos Gallery in New York.[5] In Little Gloating Eve, the artist demonstrates the entire evolution of her subject Eve beginning with the animation At least a snake, originally created for the project Patria Interiore (2012) which was curated by Manuela Pacella, and exhibited at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The culmination of the character's evolution, Little Gloating Eve also features several collaborative works with other artists including a ceramic installation by Japanese artist Toshiaki Noda, a soundtrack by French musician Lionel Laquerrière, and a collection of 96 drawings made by children at an Italian elementary school reinterpreting the character.[14]

In 2016, Scaccia was selected for a residency at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild.[15] Scaccia's fourth solo exhibit Call the Bluff featured several new pieces specifically created for the Cara Gallery exhibit.[16] The works explore the artist's fascination with "random and repetitive gestures of everyday life." According to Marie Claire's Germano D'Acquisto, the characters in her work seem to be "suspended in a state of indecision between what has been done and what will soon happen. They appear frozen and melancholic, perhaps stuck in a state of perennial indecision."[15]

• He, she, it: masculine, feminine and neuter gender (2010), Ugo Ferranti Gallery, Rome, Italy.[1][9]
• The Perfect Stage (2013), BOSI Contemporary, New York City, New York, U.S.[3]
• Little Gloating Eve (2014), Residency Unlimited, New York City, New York, U.S.[13]
• Little Gloating Eve (2014), Effearte Gallery, Milan, Italy.[17]
• Little Gloating Eve (2014), Cuchifritos Gallery, New York City, New York, U.S.[5]
• Call the Bluff (2016), Cara Gallery, Manhattan, New York, U.S.[15][16]

• Official website