2019 Catalogue Archive

For decades Nic Nicosia has created psychologically-loaded, artificial realities through staged photographs that involve elaborate sets and costumes. Recently, Nicosia has been creating figures and creatures that exist as independent sculptures, as well as subjects and props for his photographs. In this work, his Dreamboats – whimsical characters made of paperclay – stand in a line, as if posing for their portrait. With their white clay bodies against a black backdrop, the work also exists as a quiet study of light and shadow. Nicosia has exhibited his staged photographs internationally since 1980 and has been selected for the Whitney Biennials of 1983 and 2000, The Guggenheim Exxon Show in 1983, and documenta IV in1992. His work is included in the permanent collections of MoMA, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum, New York, LACMA, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; SFMoMA, San Francisco; and the Dallas Museum of Art, among others.