Andrea Picci is a

conceptual artist Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

. Archived 21 September 2018. His work analyses the profound quest for self-identity and its construction through the virtualization of our society.

Early life

Picci grew up in Switzerland. He studied photography at

ECAL ECAL or ECal may refer to: * Eastern California, a region defined as being east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range *ECAL Pty Ltd, a SaaS Technology Company * École cantonale d'art de Lausanne, a university of art and design located in Renens, Swit ...

, visual communication at ESAM Design in Paris, and has a MFA from

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

in London.

Career

In 2015, Picci staged an artistic performance in which he dressed as

Pete Doherty Peter Doherty (born 12 March 1979) is an English musician, songwriter, actor, poet, writer, and artist. He is best known for being co-frontman of The Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical projects are indie ...

, fooling some photojournalists and having his picture published on ''

Le Parisien ''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH. Histor ...

s front-page as Doherty's. "By embodying a false Doherty on a photograph presented as a true one, the doppelgänger joined an appropriationist art process in a

Richard Prince Richard Prince (born 1949) is an American painter and photographer. In the mid-1970s, Prince made drawings and painterly collages that he has since disowned. His image, ''Untitled (Cowboy)'', a rephotographing of a photograph by Sam Abell and ...

’s style, questioning the construction of identity (hello

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

) and tackled our

Society of the Spectacle ''The Society of the Spectacle'' (french: La société du spectacle) is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord, in which the author develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle. The book is considered a semina ...

," stated the French newspaper ''

Les Inrockuptibles ''Les Inrockuptibles'' () is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. Now it is a monthly again, since 2021. In the beginning, rock music was the magazine's primary focus, though every issue in ...

''. In April 2017, Picci published a book of poetry, ''Essais de gloire (Anatomie de mon coeur en été)''. In June 2018, he showed a series of copies of historic paintings altered to resemble

Nabilla Benattia Nabilla Leona Grange Benattia-Vergara (; , ; born February 5, 1992), commonly known by her first name Nabilla, is a French-Swiss model and reality TV personality. She has appeared in ''L'Amour est aveugle'' (2009), '' Hollywood Girls'' (2012–201 ...

. Benattia said she was "very flattered" by the exhibition. In 2019, he published a series of Instagram face filters. The filters questioned user's relation to

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Fac ...

. In 2020, Picci was part of the group show "Link in Bio" at MdbK (Museum der Bildenden Künste), Leipzig, DE. Curated by Anika Meier, the exhibition explored the impact of social media on contemporary art and showcased how artists have harnessed platforms like Instagram for creative expression. In October 2021, he was part of "Global Gallery", a collaborative project developped by König Gallery for Porsche. This initiative turned major city screens, like the ones of

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

and

Shibuya Crossing , or commonly known as Shibuya Crossing, is a popular scramble crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. It is located in front of the Shibuya Station Hachikō exit and stops vehicles in all directions to allow pedestrians to inundate the entire inter ...

into digital exhibition spaces. In 2022, Andy Picci was included in the "Class of 2022", a global initiative by CIRCA and

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

. This project featured the works of 30 emerging artists, which art was showcased on the screens of Piccadilly Circus, London, Uk.

Publications

Poetry

* ''Essais de Gloire (Anatomie de mon coeur en été),'' Éditions de la Marquise, Lausanne 2017.

Featured

*''PZ World'', ''IDEA ltd'' , ''PZToday'' , London 2018. REF 11545 *''Futures Of Love'', Magasins Généraux, Paris 2019. *''Link In Bio - Art After Social Media'', City of Leipzig, Museum der BildendenKünste Leipzig, Germany 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Picci, Andy Living people Conceptual artists Swiss male artists Alumni of Central Saint Martins ÉCAL alumni Year of birth missing (living people)