About the Artist
Francesco Cipollone is a contemporary painter whose work explores the boundary between abstraction and the natural world. He builds layered compositions rooted in the classical traditions of the Renaissance and Baroque — pursuing their drama, movement, and formal rigor — while remaining fully committed to improvisation and the freedom of invention.
His paintings begin in the human figure, landscape, and organic forms — not as subjects to be rendered, but as starting points for visual thinking. Each work is created entirely from imagination, shaped by intense study of classical anatomy, figure drawing, and the fundamentals of form-building.
Born in Calabria, Italy and raised in New York City, Francesco holds degrees in electrical and financial engineering from The Cooper Union and Columbia University. In the early 2000s he built the first websites for David Bowie, the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Browns. From 2003 to 2018 he led a parallel life as a professional skydiver — teaching advanced body flight to students around the world — while working as a capital markets specialist at a leading investment bank.
In 2019, he committed fully to his art practice and primarily works from his studio in the hills above Nosara, Costa Rica, where the lush landscapes and Pacific Ocean provide a constant source of organic energy, evolving light, and natural form. He returns regularly to New York and Italy to study, find inspiration, and connect with collectors and the broader art world.
As a surfer and former professional skydiver, Francesco has spent a lifetime in deep study of dynamic movement — bodies in space, forces in tension, the kinetic poetry of form in motion. These experiences are not incidental to his art. They are the art.
Skydiving over the Hudson Valley, New York
Surfing in Nosara, Costa Rica