Born in 1958, De Cotiis lives and works in Milan, Italy. His career traces a winding path fuelled by parallelisms of space and time, with cultural layering and quantum leaps – a process that unfolds through material experimentation rather than reason and intellect.
De Cotiis’ practice is defined by an ongoing pursuit to reconcile ancient idioms with futuristic forms. Through an assembly of recovered materials and reflective, otherworldly surfaces, the artist transforms imperfection and patina into sources of beauty. His works hover between function and sculpture, evoking both timeworn relics and visions of future worlds. The Vincenzo de Cotiis Foundation in Venice hosts a programme of exhibitions, installations and publications dedicated to advancing the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art and design.
De Cotiis’ work has been exhibited at international institutions and museums including the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City, Ca’ d’Oro in Venice, the Powerlong Art Museum in Shanghai, and FENIX Museum of Migration in Rotterdam, where his installation Ode entered the permanent collection in 2025, as well as at major international art and collectible design fairs.
In 2021, De Cotiis was awarded the Elle Deco International Design Award for Best Interior Designer of the Year. He has also featured for many years in Architectural Digest’s annual list of the world’s top 100 architects and designers. Vincenzo de Cotiis: Works by Anne Bony and Joseph Grima (Rizzoli, 2019) is an academic celebration of De Cotiis’ refined aesthetic, while Vincenzo De Cotiis: Interiors by Sarah Medford and Adrian Madlener (Rizzoli, 2023) is the first comprehensive book on interiors by the sought-after architect, collecting more than a decade of his atelier’s projects.
