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.
Recent solo exhibitions include : Ex-sorella at Emanuela Campoli, Paris (2026); Notte da Osvaldo, curated by Alessandro Zechini, Museo Osvaldo Licini, Ascoli Piceno (2023); Solo show, Campoli Presti, Paris (2023); Sole con le code, Clima, Milan (2022); Birthmarker, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon (2021); Amarena, Clima, Milan (2019) ; Processo a porcospino, Clima, Milan.
His work has been showcased in several group exhibitions, including Confluenze at Monitor, Rome (2026), Fantastica at Quadriennale di Roma, (2025), Premio Lissone 2025, Museo d'arte contemporanea di LISSONE, Lissone, Italy, in Gli anni. Episodi di Storia dell'arte a Napoli dagli anni Sessanta a oggi at Madre - Museo d'arte contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples (2025); Facile Ironia at MAMbo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna (2025); R U STILL PAINTING ??? at Falcon Art, New York (2025), Le luci e gli amanti at BiM, Milan (2025), Six at Chapter Gallery, New York (2025), PORPORA, In continua risonanza at Casa Testori, Milan (2024); Diario Notturno at MAXXI, L'Aquila (2024); PickPocket, curated by Massimiliano Scuderi and Renata Lucas at Fondazione Zimei, Montesilvano (2023); Expectations, curated by Massimiliano Scuderi at Fondazione Zimei, 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 di Roma, 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).
