Born 2003 in Huntington, New York
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York
Nicolina Morra’s oil paintings investigate longing as a driving force in the human experience. Disillusionment with current conditions, coupled with the desire for an unattainable ideal, can manifest in a search for meaning through secular forms of worship, where power and hope is ascribed to certain figures, rituals, and objects. Morra’s work examines how these forces of longing and devotion reflect the search for transcendence in the everyday.
Central to her practice is the re-contextualization of images drawn from her expanding personal archive, which she sources from films, found photographs, and online forums. The original context of these images is disrupted and imbued with new layers of meaning through selective cropping and a blurred painting technique, often paired with hyper-realistic depictions of things hat play with the tension between what is within and just out of reach. This process situates her work between the archive and the altar: the archive as a repository of collective memory and imagery, and the altar as a space where these fragments are elevated into symbols of contemporary secular worship and the pursuit of something more
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Regular updates on instagram
All inquiries can be sent to nicolinamorra@gmail.com
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2025 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art , Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025
Dark Spot with White Dots, Ruby/Dakota, New York, NY
Looking for Something in the Sky, 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Women-Led Galleries Now, Harsh Collective, Online
Unbridled: Horsin' Around, Latitude Gallery, New York, NY
2026
Collaged, Allgorithim House, West Hollywood, CA
The AXA Art Prize US Exhibition, New York, NY 2025
Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue, Impossible Currency, Atlanta, GA
So Real, LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans, LA
Slipcover, Point Blank, Chicago, IL
Locust Technician, Venvi Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Emergence, Bascom Center for the Visual Arts, Highlands, NC
2024
Trompe L’oeil, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL
Small Works, Jag Gallery, Key West, FL
Art is Everywhere, 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Everything But the Kitchen Sink, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
THOM Collective, Thomasville Center for the Arts, Thomasville, GA
Excellence in Art Exhibition, Honors Scholars and Fellows House, Tallahassee, FL
Bite From the Apple, Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, Quincy, FL
2023
THOM Collective, Thomasville Center for the Arts, Thomasville, GA
Paracosm, William Johnston Building Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Lorem Ipsum, Phyllis Straus Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Flowing Substances, Phyllis Straus Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
SELECTED HONORS & AWARDS
2026
Jackson’s Art Prize Longlist
2025
AXA Art Prize Finalist
Honors, Scholars, and Fellows Excellence in Visual Arts Award
Career Preparation in the Arts Fund Scholarship
2024
Bess H. Ward Honors Thesis Award
IDEA Grant Undergraduate Research Award
PRESS
Casey Lesser, “Our 6 Favorite Works from Women-Led Galleries Now”, Artsy, March 2026
Serena Hanzhi Wang, “Precise, Controlled Weirdness at Ruby/Dakota”, Cultbytes, October 2025
Karla Menendez, “This Is the One With Magic”, Primary Colors Substack, July 2025