Downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) is proud to announce their next major solo show Handle With Care, featuring new works from the award-winning San Marinian artist and world-renowned children’s book illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli. The exhibit premieres on October 29th in Gallery 3 and will be on view through December 3rd.
Ceccoli’s paintings explore how childlike wonder and innocence can curdle into emotional turmoil and darkness. The artist’s paintings invite you into a magical and wonderful world where role reversal and the blurring of lines between good and evil remind us there is not as fine a line as we often suspect between who’s good, who’s bad, and who’s afraid. Known for her richly detailed, dreamlike work, Ceccoli has described her work as attempting to “offer a delectable balance of repulsive and attractive.” Adding, “What is beautiful and sweet often hides dark suggestions.”
In this new body of work, Ceccoli brings together themes of love and loss, innocence and maturity, life and death. She describes her narratives as an “examination of my strengths and weaknesses” and paints it all with an irresistible sense of humor and “psychological tension.” In the artist’s own words, “I show our fragile nature as humans. I blend the childlike and innocent with the grotesque by painting adorable-looking porcelain toys to look like biological beings, sometimes wounded and disturbing to look at, featuring elements of the grotesque and the cute breaking down, which pull the viewer between these opposing poles.” In one work, we see a pink tufted and fragile ballerina figurine conjure her own head from a top hat as she ponders the whereabouts of her own mind (seen above), while in another, we witness the quiet yet mighty power of Little Red Riding Hood as she tames the big bad wolf with her charms.
Ceccoli adds, “Showing vulnerability is how I come to understand more about myself and the world I inhabit. Just like in life, you can see a duality in these works. Childlike fantasies are punctuated with anxieties common in adulthood. Nothing is completely black or white. You can’t have the sweet without the bitter. These works reveal my deepest fears and are a way for me to fight back against constraints, as well as seek power, independence, creativity, spirituality, and magic.”
Featuring 13 new paintings, rendered in acrylic on paper, Handle With Care marks Ceccoli’s third solo at CHG, following Relazioni Pericolose (November 2019) and Hide and Seek (August 2017).
Handle With Care opens Saturday, October 29th from 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm in Gallery 3, alongside a solo show from Brandi Milne, titled Everything I Ever Was, in the Main Gallery.
About Nicoletta Ceccoli:
Nicoletta Ceccoli was born in The Republic of San Marino, where she still lives and works. Since graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, where she studied animation cinema, Ceccoli has had a successful career as an illustrator, with her work being commissioned for more than 30 children’s books, as well as animated films, advertisements, magazines, album covers, and more for such high-profile clients as Random House, Mondadori, Simon and Shuster, Feltrinelli, Macy’s, United Airlines, and Vogue, among many others.
Known for her richly detailed, dreamlike work, Ceccoli has exhibited around the world, including in Italy, UK, Netherlands, Tokyo, Russia, Canada, and all over the U.S. In 2021, she was awarded the Andersen Prize, “honoring her as the best children’s book illustrator in Italy.” Other accolades include being recognized by the Society of Illustrators of New York, as well as being a five time-winner of Communication Arts’ Award of Excellence, one of the most-coveted awards in the industry. In 2022, Ceccoli was chosen to represent The Republic of San Marino at the 59th Venice Biennale ─ the prestigious international contemporary art exhibition hosted in Venice, Italy and often described as “the Olympics of the art world.”
About Corey Helford Gallery:
Established in 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer/creator Bruce Helford (The Conners, Anger Management, The Drew Carey Show, and George Lopez), Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) has since evolved into one of the premier galleries of New Contemporary art. Its goal as an institution is to support the growth of artists, from the young and emerging, to the well-known and internationally established. CHG represents a diverse collection of international artists, primarily influenced by today’s pop culture and collectively encompassing style genres such as New Figurative Art, Pop Surrealism, Neo Pop, Graffiti, and Street Art. Located in downtown Los Angeles (571 S. Anderson St. Los Angeles, CA 90033) in a robust 12,000 square-foot building, CHG presents new exhibitions approximately every six weeks. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm, with visiting hours being Thursday through Saturday from 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm ─ appointments are only necessary during non-visiting hours. For more info and an upcoming exhibition schedule, visit CoreyHelfordGallery.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. For available prints from CHG, visit CHGPrints.com.
COREY HELFORD GALLERY
571 S. Anderson St. Los Angeles, CA 90033
Open: Tuesday-Saturday, 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Visiting Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm