Coma Berenices

The constellation COMA BERENICES represents the beautiful hair of Queen Berenice of Egypt. She was so concerned for the safety of her husband Ptolemy III when he went off to war, that she vowed to cut off her glorious long hair as a sacrifice to Venus, should he be spared. When he eventually returned safely home, she kept her promise, and Zeus placed her beautiful hair in the heavens to shine among the stars.

Erica Calardo (Genoa, 1980) is a figurative painter living and working in Bologna, Italy. Erica works in oils, watercolors, and pencils and her haunting portraits are windows on the solitude of lost souls. She explores the realm of Beauty, Grotesque, Magic, by creating eery oneiric feminine figures who tell tales of long forgotten dreams, of an imaginary timeless past.

Deeply rooted in the Italian Tradition, her technique is inspired by the Renaissance and Mannerism old masters (Leonardo, Bronzino, and Lavinia Fontana above all). She is mostly self-taught and has learned her skills from old dusty books. She has recently studied academic painting with Italian master Roberto Ferri.