Ashen, Caligo, and Striae

In the 2025 Summer Scenes: Art In Full Bloom exhibition at Bethany Arts Community, Anthony Cuozzo’s trio of works—Ashen, Caligo, and Striae—offered a contemplative counterpoint to the show’s theme of seasonal vitality. While many artists explored summer’s outward energy through florals, color, and movement, Cuozzo chose instead to explore the quiet interior cycles that often precede visible growth. His contribution whispered rather than shouted, and in doing so, it commanded attention.

These three works function as a meditative triptych—separate yet thematically intertwined. Ashen confronts the viewer with a subtle tension between erosion and endurance, where surfaces appear weathered but not broken. Caligo, whose Latin title evokes fog or darkness, draws us further inward—its densely layered textures feel like emotional sediment built up over time. And Striae, with its fine linear disruptions, feels like breath returning after a long pause—a record of unseen motion, both geological and personal.

What makes Cuozzo’s work so resonant is his command of texture as language. Rather than rely on figurative content or overt symbolism, he coaxes meaning from the physicality of the surface itself. Raised ridges, fractured lines, and soft gradients become metaphors for memory, grief, resilience, and transformation. His paintings are not windows but walls—walls that remember, that crack and shift, that hold.

There is a restraint in this series that feels deliberate and honest. Cuozzo does not seek to dazzle; he asks the viewer to slow down. To notice. To feel. In a cultural moment that often favors immediacy and gloss, his work stands as a quiet rebellion—a call back to internal landscapes and the beauty of what endures beneath the surface.

Together, Ashen, Caligo, and Striae form a powerful reflection on the unseen cycles of growth and renewal. They remind us that blooming is not always a bright eruption of color—it can also be the steady survival through shadow, the gathering of strength in silence, the patient shaping of self.

Cuozzo continues to establish himself as a deeply introspective and emotionally authentic voice in the world of textural abstraction. His work doesn’t just invite observation—it demands presence. And in that presence, something quietly profound takes root.