Dominick Cocozza (b. 2001, Mazatenango, Guatemala) is a Guatemalan American painter of Maya Tz’utujil heritage currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. Cocozza earned his BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2024. Much of Cocozza’s artistic practice speaks to his transracial adoptee identity by shedding light on adoptee narratives, Indigenous ancestry, and themes of reclamation. His works invite viewers into a speculative worldbuilding orbit that forges cultural celebration, romance, and Latinx belonging.
Cocozza’s works have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC; The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC; Kates-Ferri Projects in New York, NY; Southampton History Museum in Southampton, NY; The Pantheon Institute in Rome, Italy; Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA; United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC; Junior High LA Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; Woods Gerry Gallery in Providence, RI; RISD Museum Gelman Gallery in Providence, RI; Providence Art Club in Providence, RI; 82Parris Gallery in Portland, ME; Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery in Glen Echo, MD; The Cherokee Town & Country Club Art Collection Space in Atlanta, GA; Radford University Art Museum in Radford, VA and the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA.
His works have been featured in CNN, BBC News, Voice of America (VOA) News, Arlington Magazine, and Prensa Libre Guatemala. He is a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Letters Washington, DC chapter Highly Commended Award Scholarship and the 2024 Florence Leif Award sponsored by the RISD Painting Department. Cocozza was an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) in Johnson, VT, and Ma's House Residency in Southampton, NY (Shinnecock Indian Nation). He works from his Providence studio at Aunty’s House, a community arts kinship collective founded and nourished by Lilly Manycolors.
