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
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025 Dark Spot with White Dots, Ruby/Dakota, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Unbridled: Horsin’ Around, Latitude Gallery, New York, NY
2025
Collaged, Allgorithim House, West Hollywood, CA
The AXA Art Prize US Exhibition, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY (upcoming)
Blue Blue Blue Blue Blue, Impossible Currency, Atlanta, GA
So Real, LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans, LA
Everything I’ve Ever Known, Working Method Contemporary Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Slipcover, Point Blank, Chicago, IL
Excellence in Art Exhibition, Honors Scholars and Fellows House, Tallahassee, FL
Locust Technician, Venvi Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Apricari, William Johnston Building Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Emergence, Bascom Center for the Visual Arts, Highlands, NC
Myriad, Phyllis Straus Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Echo Locator, Field Projects, Online, New York, NY
2024
Trompe L’oeil, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL
Expo, Working Method Contemporary Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Small Works, Jag Gallery, Key West, FL
Art is Everywhere, 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Engagement Archive, Fine Arts Building Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Interplay, Phyllis Straus Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
Reserves, Phyllis Straus 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
Ouroboros, Phyllis Straus Gallery, Tallahassee, FL
BFA Showcase, Carnegie Arts Building Gallery, Tallahassee, 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
HONORS & AWARDS
2025
AXA Art Prize Finalist
Honors, Scholars, and Fellows Excellence in Visual Arts Award
Career Preparation in the Arts Fund Scholarship
2024
Mary Brown Ostlund Award
Bess H. Ward Honors Thesis Award
IDEA Grant Undergraduate Research Award
2023
Ruth Owen Endowed Scholarship
PRESS
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