Bio / CV

For pdf of cv, please click HERE

Victor Cobo was born in 1971 in Melbourne, Florida, to an American 
father and Spanish mother. He is a photo-based installation 
artist who creates painterly large-scale works. Cobo is a relentless miner of San Francisco’s darker landscapes. His fluid, inventive photographic images bridge the present-day gap between 
conceptual and documentary fine art photography.



His autobiographical pieces explore the fringes and shadows of life 
while unearthing secrets through sometimes lurid fantasies. Most obvious are 
themes relating to escapism, alter-ego, longing, androgyny, eroticism, 
mortality and the human condition. His photographs are noted for their 
psychological penetration, and for their often discomforting examination 
of uncertainty, inexpressible fears and the relationship between artist 
and model.

Cobo is a self-taught photographer who draws inspiration from 
Surrealism, Film noir and German Expressionism. He is also influenced 
by the experimental cinematography of David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and 
David Cronenberg, as well as the work of British Postwar Painters, 
Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Repeated visits to The Museo del Prado 
in Spain with his taxi-driving grandfather and seeing midnight 
thrillers with his poor and drug-addicted father as a child 
changed his life. Specifically and in particular his father taking him to see the 1982 British live-action/animated musical film, Pink Floyd – The Wall, had a profound and permanent effect on him.



In 2007 his works were included in "First Look: Masterworks of American 
Photography" at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and "Photo Forum" 
at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, curated by Anne Wilkes Tucker. In 
2010 his works were included in "Hauntology" at the Berkeley Art Museum 
& Pacific Film Archive, alongside such artists as Francisco de Goya, 
Francis Bacon and Diane Arbus. The exhibition was curated by Scott 
Hewicker and Lawrence Rinder.