N.B. For a quick read, only read the bold sections.

My name is Alessia, I am an Italian living in Berlin, and I have been a full-time artist since February 2023.
My tool is the pencil. My main interest lies in realistic portraiture.

MY ART

Around these two cornerstones (the pencil and realistic portraiture), I experiment with different media—primarily colored markers and gold leaf—from which recurring stylistic elements of a naïve character emerge: dots, curls, circular elements…
This type of doodling often accompanies the portrait, intertwining with it and creating surreal-magical scenarios around realism.
I believe this dual stylistic approach reflects an ambivalence deeply rooted in my personality. For this reason, my artistic work and my personal growth journey strive to progress side by side, aiming for the most harmonious integration possible.
The central theme of my artistic work revolves around human ambivalence, spiritual introspection, and self-exploration.

HOW I STARTED

My artistic journey began when I was 15 years old, and one Sunday morning my father came home with a large solid wood easel, which he had bought second-hand for only 20,000 lire at the famous Porta Portese market in Rome. Since then, I have always created and filled every possible space with paintings and drawings, which have now accumulated in a considerable quantity.

EDUCATION

However, throughout this long journey, I never approached the art market, nor did I systematically try to enter the gallery or exhibition circuit. My education developed in a varied way:
I reserved art for a self-taught and independent dimension, occasionally selling works through word of mouth, sometimes even on commission. At the same time, I earned a degree in Sociology with a specialization in Communication and Media at La Sapienza University in Rome. I completed a master’s degree in business analysis in Pomezia. Later, I started working with the creative agency Matematici.srl in Rome as a designer for videos and websites. In this field, I specialized by attending a design and web development course at IED – Istituto Europeo di Design (Rome).
In 2011, I began to feel a kind of emptiness in my work as a designer, a lack of meaning, and, combined with a failed relationship, I felt the need to take a break and went to visit a friend in Berlin.
A month later, I decided to move to Berlin and start working independently.

THE PENCIL

In Berlin, I was broke, disoriented, but at the same time excited to find myself in such a way, uprooted from my comfort zone.
I lived in an almost unfurnished apartment with other roommates. We had only the essentials, and there was no space in that setting for my countless tubes of oil paints, my drawers full of brushes of all kinds, my solid wood easel, or my large-format boards.
All I had left was a pencil. Light, inexpensive, always within reach—the ultimate nomadic tool.
It was then that I entrusted my artistic journey to the tip of a pencil, and since then, I have been passionate about this instrument.

COLLABORATIONS

In Berlin, I was able to shape my work more towards art, leaving web design as a secondary role. This allowed me to secure two significant collaborations: one, on a regular basis, with the Italian architecture studio FM Architettura, for the creation of various pencil drawings. The other, with the RBA Branding & Design agency in Milan. From this collaboration came a collection of pencil drawings titled Le donne, created for the labels of Terza Rima craft beers by the Togni Group.
At the same time, I worked as a freelance web designer for the startup Parkinglist.

THE NOVEL

Since 2012, I have been registered with Künstlersozialkasse (the German social security fund for artists) as an artist, and later also as a writer, as in 2017 I published a novel under the pseudonym Amanda Greco, titled Gente di Berlino, published by the Italian publishing house Ouverture Edizioni.
With the writing of the novel, I fulfilled another of my passions: writing. And although it may seem that writing is a separate interest from drawing, in reality, these two passions have intersections and points of contact—there are stories that connect to drawings and drawings that are born from stories.

FROM MOTHERHOOD TO TODAY

After publishing the novel, I became a mother to my first child, and two years later, my daughter was born. I took an extended break to dedicate myself to motherhood.
In February 2023, I resumed working. In this new phase, I decided to abandon web design and any other professional path outside the artistic field and to devote myself entirely to art.
Since October 2023, I have been part of the global contemporary art marketplace Saatchi Art. Some of my works have been sold at the Catawiki Contemporary Art Auction.
From January to July 2024, I participated in the six-month Art Up Now project, funded by the European Social Fund and the Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the Berlin Senate, with the aim of enhancing artists’ professionalism.
As part of this program, I participated in the group exhibition Wille oder Wahl at Kunstquartier Bethanien in Berlin.
Since then, I have regularly participated in exhibitions and art events in Berlin.
I am currently looking for a gallery to represent me.
I am hopeful and curious to see where this new phase of my journey will lead me.
The rest of the story is yet to be written…