Nicola Cucchiaro

Matermatrix

2022

Nicola Cucchiaro (Rimini, 1957) is an Italian sculptor and visual artist whose work is in constant dialogue with the languages of contemporary art. He lives and works in his hometown and has developed an extensive career both artistically and academically. Until 2022, he was a tenured professor of Ornamental Plastic Art and Contemporary Plastic Techniques at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna, where he trained generations of young artists. His production explores the intersections between popular culture, sculptural language, and everyday objects. Over the years, Cucchiaro has incorporated elements from the imaginary world of cartoons, toys, souvenirs, and commercial artifacts into his practice, stripping them of their original function to create new ironic, sensitive, or perplexing interpretations. This approach combines artifice, humor, critique, and estrangement in compositions that challenge sculptural tradition and expand its formal and semantic boundaries. He has held numerous solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including in Barcelona, San Marino, Ravenna, Cesena, and Bologna. His work has been presented at institutions such as the MAR Museum in Ravenna, the Museo della Città in Rimini, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Gallarate, and the XI Quadriennale di Roma. His participation in fairs, biennales, and group exhibitions since the 1980s reflects a consistent trajectory, attentive to the present but rooted in deep formal and conceptual research.