Nicola Samorì

Nicola Samorì was born on 13 May 1977 in Forlì, Italy. He studied at the Liceo Artistico in Ravenna before continuing at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, where he received his diploma in 2004. He now lives and works in Bagnacavallo, in the province of Ravenna.

Samorì's paintings and sculptures rework the imagery of European religious and portrait painting, most often the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, using techniques of scraping, peeling, and layering that leave his figures partially destroyed, as if the surface of the image itself were undergoing decay. He works across oil painting, marble, and other stone, often physically fracturing or hollowing the material he carves.

His early recognition came through Italian prizes: the Morandi engraving prize from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna in 2002, the Premio Michetti in 2006, the 9th Premio Cairo in Milan in 2008, and the VAF Foundation Art Prize in 2014. He represented Italy in the Italian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and again at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, in the exhibition All the World's Futures. His first major museum solo show came at the Kunsthalle Tübingen in 2012, and in 2021 Palazzo Fava in Bologna hosted Sfregi, described by organizers as his first anthological retrospective in Italy. He has since exhibited at institutions including MAXXI in Rome, the Fondazione Made in Cloister in Naples, and the Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art in Taiwan, and in 2025 to 2026 was the subject of Classical Collapse, a paired exhibition at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan that placed his work in dialogue with each institution's historical holdings. His gallery footprint expanded into the United States in 2024, with a solo show at Nicodim Gallery in New York, followed by a 2026 solo exhibition at Nicodim's Los Angeles space.

Critics have tended to frame Samorì as a contemporary painter working through, rather than against, the history of Western religious and portrait painting, using physical damage to the image as his primary expressive tool. American critic R.C. Baker, writing in the Village Voice, described Samorì's "rereadings of old master oils" as "a revelation," though the exact year of that review could not be confirmed in current research. Italian critics and curators have repeatedly framed his 2021 Palazzo Fava retrospective and the 2025 to 2026 Capodimonte and Ambrosiana project as evidence that his work sustains direct comparison with the historical paintings it reinterprets, rather than functioning as pastiche.

Samorì's confirmed auction high is Miriade, a 2018 oil on linen that sold for GBP 81,900 at Phillips in London on 28 April 2022, roughly USD 100,000 at the time, though no independently verified USD conversion for that specific sale could be confirmed. His secondary market remains small relative to his institutional profile, with results concentrated at European houses such as Phillips and Van Ham. Representation is shared collaboratively between Nicodim Gallery, in Los Angeles and New York, and Galerie EIGEN + ART, in Berlin and Leipzig, with Monitor, in Rome, Pereto, and Lisbon, functioning as a recurring exhibiting partner. The 2024 and 2026 Nicodim shows mark his first sustained gallery presence in the United States, alongside a growing footprint in Asia.

Samorì's auction record is thin: a single confirmed high-water mark at Phillips London in 2022, with results otherwise concentrated in a small number of European sales, so any single result should be read with caution rather than as a stable trend line. There is no published catalogue raisonne, and no certificate-of-authenticity program has been identified in current research, which places more weight on gallery and exhibition provenance, particularly through Nicodim Gallery and Galerie EIGEN + ART. His institutional program, two Venice Biennale appearances, a Kunsthalle Tübingen solo, and the 2025 to 2026 Capodimonte and Ambrosiana project, is the strongest signal of durability, while his recent expansion into New York, Los Angeles, and Beijing suggests a market still in the process of internationalizing.