Valerio Nicolai
Biography
Valerio Nicolai (Gorizia, IT 1988), lives and works in Milan. He studied at Accademia delle Belle Arti in Venice. Nicolai was awarded the Osvaldo Licini Prize in 2023 and the 2020-21 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.Valerio Nicolai uses the space of painting to confront art history’s consecrated subject matters with elements of the prosaic and the everyday. The traditional still life, a tool for both deadpan description and ambiguous symbolism, is declined into contemporary commonplace objects, images and banal situations. Drama and humor end up inhabiting his fictional scenes, building a tension between glorified artistic topics and the realistic, absurd way they can come into existence.
Valerio Nicolai has had several solo exhibitions, such as Premio Osvaldo Licini at Galleria d'Arte Contemporanea Osvaldo Licini, Ascoli Piceno (2024); Valerio Nicolai at Campoli Presti, Paris (2023); Sole con le code at Clima, Milan (2022); Birthmarker at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon (2021); Heart’s rock and Potato’s spirit at Las Palmas Project, Lisbon (2018); Prospettiva di una matrioska at smART Foundation, Rome (2017); Trasformazione permanente di un mago in formica at Treti Galaxie, Turin (2016); Walking with Art at Spazio Monotono, Vicenza (2013); Falansterio at Spazio Morris, Milan (2012); Difetto come indizio del desiderio at Galleria Neon, Bologna (2011).
His work has been showcased in several group exhibitions, including the current exhibition PORPORA, In continua risonanza at Casa Testori in Milan (2024); Diario Notturno at MAXXI in Rome (2024); PickPocket, curated by Massimiliano Scuderi and Renata Lucas at Fondazione Zimei in Montesilvano (2023); Expectations , curated by Massimiliano Scuderi at Fondazione Zimei in Pescara(2022); Panorama Monopoli curated by Vincenzo De Bellis (2022); Movie Buff, curated by Alfredo Aceto (2021); Sul Disegno e la Pittura (Ne Usciremo), curated by Renato Leotta, at Galeria Madragoa ,Lisbon (2021); Basta at Palazzo Monti,Brescia (2021); Stasi Frenetica, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa at GAM ,Turin (2021); FUORI at Quadriennale Arte, Rome (2020); Art Residency - Port Tonic Art Center; SWAMP HORSES at Spirit Vessel, Espinavessa (2019); straperetana 2018, curated by Saverio Verini, Pereto (2018); Trigger Party, curated by Andrea Magnani e Zoe De Luca at Marselleria, Milan (2018); Shit and Die, curated by Maurizio Cattelan at Palazzo Cavour, Turin (2014).
UPCOMING: The artist's work in going to be featured in several upcoming group exhibitions in various institutions such as MADRE in Napoli; MAMbo in Bologna; Chapter Gallery in New York; La Quadriennale d'arte contemporanea in Rome.
