NICOLA DE MARIA

In the early years of his career, De Maria approached photography, then experimented with drawing in notebooks: first with pencil, then with pastels, oil, and watercolor. Even in these beginnings, his lyrical and spiritual sensitivity emerges, which soon led him to surpass the traditional boundaries of the canvas to explore the relationship between painting and space. From 1975, he began painting directly on walls, an approach that profoundly characterizes his artistic poetics.
The career of Nicola De Maria is set within the lively cultural scene of Turin in the 1970s, where Conceptual Art played a leading role. However, while engaging with this context, De Maria developed an autonomous language, characterized by strong spiritualism and lyricism that earned him a place among the protagonists of the Italian Transavanguardia. This movement, theorized by Achille Bonito Oliva in 1978, also includes artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, and Mimmo Paladino, but Nicola De Maria stands out for his particular abstract and poetic orientation.
For Nicola De Maria, painting is not a simple figurative representation of the world but an attempt to translate the invisible essence of reality into pure chromatic harmony. The artist himself describes his work as "writing poems with hands full of colors," a definition that well summarizes the deep relationship between painting and poetry in his artwork. His art is permeated by references to nature, flowers, and the sky, evoking images that invite the viewer on an inner journey.
Color for De Maria is never just a decorative tool: it becomes living matter, memory and desire, spirituality and a celebration of art as a means to sublimate "the accidents and brutality of the world into beauty and harmony." His pictorial practice is also inspired by the principles of improvisation: often the artworks are created without a defined project, directly on site, as a testimony to an expressive necessity fulfilled in the "here and now" of the artistic gesture.
Throughout his career, Nicola De Maria has exhibited his artworks in prestigious international venues. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1980, 1988, and 1990, Documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982, the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil in 1981, and the Sydney Biennale in 1982. In Italy, he was present at the Rome Quadriennale in 2005 and 2012. Moreover, significant retrospectives have been dedicated to him at the Museum Haus Lange Krefeld and Kunsthalle Basel in 1983, Kunsthaus Zurich and Stedelijk van Abbemuseum Eindhoven in 1985, Seibu Museum of Modern Art Tokyo in 1988, and Museo Pecci Prato in 2012, among others.
These recognitions consolidate the figure of Nicola De Maria as one of the protagonists of contemporary Italian art. His research is based on a cosmic and universal conception of painting, understood as a celebration of the bond between man and the universe. Emblematic is the artwork Head of the Cosmic Artist in Turin (1984-1985), an inner self-portrait where sharp geometries and bright colors compose a harmonious and dynamic vision of the artist's mind and spirit.
The path of De Maria enriched in the 1980s and 1990s with works that transform exhibition spaces into total environments, large-scale paintings recalling the ancient tradition of fresco, reinterpreted in a contemporary key. His art, deeply Mediterranean in chromaticism and vitality, always remains oriented towards pure abstraction, with a language that becomes pictorial prayer, spiritual reflection, and poetic testimony.

Nicola De Maria artworks

The artworks of Nicola De Maria stand out for their ability to surpass the traditional boundaries of the canvas, embracing the surrounding space in an environmental and immersive conception. The painting of Nicola De Maria is characterized by pure and bright colors, applied in intense fields that evoke imaginary landscapes and dreamlike atmospheres. His artworks are populated by recurring symbolic motifs such as flowers, the sky, the sea, the moon: natural elements that become a poetic medium between the artist and the invisible world.
An emblematic example is the artwork Sea, close your eyes, oh sea (1983), where a deep blue field, crossed by red and yellow brushstrokes, conveys the sensation of immersing oneself in a distant and dreamed sea. In The flowers greet the moon (1984), the shape of the scroll-papyrus and the delicate painted flowers suggest the fragility and harmony of the natural universe.
The floral theme is particularly important: artworks of Nicola De Maria such as those titled Kingdom of Flowers embody the idea that flowers are universal creatures, in tune with the planets and symbols of an ideal life system. Each artwork represents a fragment of the artist's inner universe, a spiritual vision manifested through the pictorial gesture and chromatic improvisation.
Nicola De Maria's approach to painting as a "visual poem" also leads him to create large environmental installations, where ceilings and walls come alive thanks to color, offering the viewer immersive and contemplative experiences.

Nicola De Maria valuations

The valuations of Nicola De Maria on the art market reflect the growing recognition of the artistic and cultural value of his work. His artworks are present in the collections of the most important contemporary art museums and are regularly offered in major international auction houses, achieving significant results.
The value of the valuations of Nicola De Maria varies depending on the size, technique, and period of creation of the artworks. His large-scale canvas works and the most famous environmental installations can reach six-figure numbers, especially when they are artworks made in the 1980s, a period considered crucial for his career. More accessible, but still highly appreciated by collectors, are the drawings on paper and small-scale artworks, also sought after for their poetic intensity and expressive strength.
In general, the valuations of Nicola De Maria show a growing trend, supported by the interest of galleries, museums, and private collectors. The uniqueness of De Maria's artistic language, the lyricism that pervades each of his creations, and his ability to translate the transcendent into painting continue to make him one of the most esteemed and followed contemporary Italian artists also at an international level.