Renzo Nucara biography

Renzo Nucara, born in Crema in 1955, is a well-known Italian artist who has distinguished himself with a unique and innovative artistic language. He grew up in Bergamo, where he attended art high school. Already in 1970 he practiced watercolor painting, creating surreal landscapes and developing what would become his artistic language. In 1973, after graduating, he enrolled at the Brera Academy in Milan. Here he came into contact with the artworks of Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri and American Pop Art, which had a significant influence on his artistic path. He began his career painting oil paintings, then, under the guidance of the artist Mario Benedetti, he experimented with new techniques and materials, such as acrylic paints and collages.
Renzo Nucara inaugurated his first solo exhibition in 1977 at the Galleria Ticino in Milan, exhibiting artworks that reflect his interest in a new form of artistic communication. In the 1980s, the artist focused on the theme of the diary. Emotions, sensations, daily events were reported on the canvas, often through reversed or fragmented phrases, in a constant tension between the revealed and the hidden.
Subsequently, Nucara's artwork underwent a significant evolution: writing became a sign, two-dimensionality gave way to three-dimensionality, and the use of materials expanded to include wood, found objects, and transparent films. Thus were born the Box della memoria, creations in which the artist combines the playful and the ironic.
In 1993, Renzo Nucara founded, together with five other artists, the Cracking Art Group. Plastic became the main material, becoming a symbol of their social and ecological commitment. With the group, he participated in the 49th Venice Biennale with the installation SOS World: more than a thousand recycled and gilded plastic turtles invaded the gardens around the historic pavilions. He returned to the Biennale with the group in 2011 and 2013.
In the 1990s, Renzo Nucara created the Reperti, two-dimensional artworks that evoke the idea of an object corroded by time. These artworks, initially made with papier-mâché and foam rubber, were later made in plastic material enriched with layers of color, granules, pigments, and natural elements.
Alongside his work with the Cracking Art Group, Renzo Nucara continues his individual artistic research. In the early 2000s, he began working on Resinfilm, compositions that combine resins, pigments, natural and artificial objects, transforming the exhibition space into a landscape. His journey continues with projects like Arbre Magique, created together with his wife Carla Volpati, and Time Machine, and in 2013 Stratofilm was born, an artwork composed of frames of layered methacrylate with natural elements and everyday objects.
More recently, Renzo Nucara has begun creating artwork NFT (non-fungible token), entering the world of Cryptoart and confirming his ongoing search for new forms of artistic expression. Renzo Nucara stands out not only for his versatility and creativity but also for his social and environmental commitment, making him a prominent figure in the Italian contemporary art scene.