“The making of my art unfolds, is born, and ignites within me, alone, witness of my being, alone, but conditioned by the entire universe, by the atoms within me, by the cells ended up here after millennia of evolution. I make my works from nothing, but drawing from all of this. My existence (in space, in nature) as the sole instrument of creation. From here, I utilize my hair, the leaves, the powders, the pigments that I extract from the elements I find on the ground and that I gather with my hands. The dimensions of the works are those that I, myself, can handle alone, without external equipment or support. I want to say that this is the voice, the sibilance that my existence produces, by itself. This is the only way to feel connected with others (meaning, the environment), to, in a moment of profound solitude, feel immersed in the world-system, when I paint from the soil or on the trees, in a desperate yet perfectly sensible gesture of connection.”
Francesca Virginia Coppola (Rome, 1981) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works between Rome and Los Angeles. Her work unfolds at the crossroads of visual art and ecology, with a specific focus on zooanthropology and canine cognitive ethology. She uses found elements including barks, branches, seeds, rocks, and their extracted pigments to explore the correlation of time, human beings, organic and inorganic matter. In doing so, she embraces installation, assemblage, and soil/tree ‘rubbings’ – a technique she developed to capture her situated relationship with the environment.
Site specificity is a pivotal aspect of Coppola’s practice. When conceiving her exhibitions, she engages with the surroundings of the venues. This reflects in her titles, where scientific nomenclature, time, and geographical references indicate where and when the materials are gathered. These fragments of reality are transitional objects bridging nature as a primal level of existence to the artist’s inner thinking. Coppola’s empathy towards landscape, animals, and plants manifests in her thoughtful and subtle gestures aiming at disclosing the intrinsic poetry and elegiac existence of these beings while establishing intimate yet transversal narratives extending through time and space.
Such a unique approach to the organic dimension has gained recognition from various institutions in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at Art Centre Silkeborg Bad (Silkeborg, Denmark), Casa delle Culture (Rome, Italy), Brand Library & Art Center (Glendale, California, USA), among others, and has been featured via MoMA’s In the Studio program. She’s been awarded residencies at NAHR, Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (Val Taleggio, Italy, 2024), and at The Wild: Artist in Residence (Ontario, Canada, 2019). Her work is held in multiple private Italian collections.
“The making of my art unfolds, is born, and ignites within me, alone, witness of my being, alone, but conditioned by the entire universe, by the atoms within me, by the cells ended up here after millennia of evolution. I make my works from nothing, but drawing from all of this. My existence (in space, in nature) as the sole instrument of creation. From here, I utilize my hair, the leaves, the powders, the pigments that I extract from the elements I find on the ground and that I gather with my hands. The dimensions of the works are those that I, myself, can handle alone, without external equipment or support. I want to say that this is the voice, the sibilance that my existence produces, alone. This is the only way to feel connected with others (meaning, the environment), to, in a moment of profound solitude, feel immersed in the world-system, when I draw from the soil or on the trees, in a desperate yet perfectly sensible gesture of connection.”
Francesca Virginia Coppola (Rome, 1981) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works between Rome and Los Angeles. Her work unfolds at the crossroads of visual art and ecology, with a specific focus on zooanthropology and canine cognitive ethology. She uses found elements including barks, branches, seeds, rocks, and their extracted pigments to explore the correlation of time, human beings, organic and inorganic matter. In doing so, she embraces installation, assemblage, and soil/tree ‘rubbings’ – a technique she developed to capture her situated relationship with the environment.
Site specificity is a pivotal aspect of Coppola’s practice. When conceiving her exhibitions, she engages with the surroundings of the venues. This reflects in her titles, where scientific nomenclature, time, and geographical references indicate where and when the materials are gathered. These fragments of reality are transitional objects bridging nature as a primal level of existence to the artist’s inner thinking.
Coppola’s empathy towards landscape, animals, and plants manifests in her thoughtful and subtle gestures aiming at disclosing the intrinsic poetry and elegiac existence of these beings while establishing intimate yet transversal narratives extending through time and space.
Such a unique approach to the organic dimension has gained recognition from various institutions in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at Art Centre Silkeborg Bad (Silkeborg, Denmark), Casa delle Culture (Rome, Italy), Brand Library & Art Center (Glendale, California, USA), among others, and has been featured via MoMA’s In the Studio program. She’s been awarded residencies at NAHR, Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (Val Taleggio, Italy, 2024), and at The Wild: Artist in Residence (Ontario, Canada, 2019). Her work is held in multiple private Italian collections.

CV
b. 1981, Rome – Italy
EDUCATION
2007 BFA (Painting), summa cum laude, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome (Italy)
EXHIBITIONS
Selected group exhibitions:
2024 FIRE: Renewal, Rituals, Power, NAHR Residency Open Studio Day, Val Taleggio, Italy
2024 Brand 52 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA, USA
2023 Amazing Nature, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark
2023 Call of the Wild, Southern California Open Regional Exhibitions, CA, USA
2023 Botanical Art, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, USA
2018 In the Studio: Art by MoMA’s Learning Community, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2009 T+T=A – Tusculanae & Tusculani artisti in città, Spazio Zip, Frascati, Italy
2008 Tuscolanae, III edition, Museo Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati, Italy
2007 Video art exhibition, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
2006 Biennale Giovani Artisti, Imperia, Italy
2004 Notte Bianca, Mostra di Pittura; Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
2004 Settimana della Cultura, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
Solo exhibitions:
2004 Ai quattro (e)venti, Casa delle Culture, Rome (Italy); Title of artwork: “L’acqua del rubinetto è potabile” (installation), Curator: Gabriele Gaspari
RESIDENCIES
2024 NAHR Nature, Art & Habitat Residency Eco-Laboratory of Multidisciplinary Practice, Val Taleggio, Italy
2019 The Wild: Artist In Residence, Wild Mill Studios, Ontario (Canada)
COLLECTIONS
2023 Private collection, Naples, Italy
2022 Private collection, Venice, Italy
2018 Private collection, Rome, Italy
2017 Private collection, Rome, Italy
PUBLICATIONS
2022 “The Studio Image Project”, Friend of the Artist (FOA)
2015 Arte e Design, “Eco Artisti Offresi”. Title of featured artwork: “Today is a lie”

CV
b. 1981, Rome – Italy
EDUCATION
2007 BFA (Painting), summa cum laude, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome (Italy)
EXHIBITIONS
Selected group exhibitions:
2024 FIRE: Renewal, Rituals, Power, NAHR Residency Open Studio Day, Val Taleggio, Italy
2024 Brand 52 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA, USA
2023 Amazing Nature, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark
2023 Call of the Wild, Southern California Open Regional Exhibitions, CA, USA
2023 Botanical Art, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA, USA
2018 In the Studio: Art by MoMA’s Learning Community, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2009 T+T=A – Tusculanae & Tusculani artisti in città, Spazio Zip, Frascati, Italy
2008 Tuscolanae, III edition, Museo Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati, Italy
2007 Video art exhibition, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
2006 Biennale Giovani Artisti, Imperia, Italy
2004 Notte Bianca, Mostra di Pittura; Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
2004 Settimana della Cultura, Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
Solo exhibitions:
2004 Ai quattro (e)venti, Casa delle Culture, Rome (Italy); Title of artwork: “L’acqua del rubinetto è potabile” (installation), Curator: Gabriele Gaspari
RESIDENCIES
2024 NAHR Nature, Art & Habitat Residency Eco-Laboratory of Multidisciplinary Practice, Val Taleggio, Italy
2019 The Wild: Artist In Residence, Wild Mill Studios, Ontario (Canada)
COLLECTIONS
2018 Private collection, Rome, Italy
2017 Private collection, Rome, Italy
PUBLICATIONS
2021 “The Studio Image Project”, Friends of the Artist (FOA)
2015 Arte e Design, “Eco Artisti Offresi”. Title of featured artwork: “Today is a lie”