Since the early 1980s, Nic Nicosia has exhibited elaborately staged photographs, utilizing studio sets and a cast of performer/models. By manipulating the human figure, action, and setting, Nicosia creates a feeling of unreality that disturbs the viewer’s expectation that photography will document "real-life" situations. For example, the images from the series Sex Acts represent a sexually inspired performance under a glaring spotlight; however, the "performers" faces are either completely obscured with cloth or replaced by new features painted on the cloth. In subsequent series, Nicosia abandoned color photography for black and white, and began to paint thin layers of color over his increasingly enigmatic images. In Love and Lust, he has added a thin layer of paint to the images reminiscent of film stills. His more recent film and video work has received great acclaim, and he is represented in the biennial exhibition with the film On Acting America (2001), a contemporary parody of 1950s television sitcoms.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Nicosia received his BA from the University of North Texas in 1974. His numerous solo exhibitions include those at the Steven Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco (1998), and P.P.O.W. in New York (2000). Nicosia’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent, Belgium.

SITE Santa Fe’s Art & Culture series is partially supported by The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston, Lannan Foundation, Madelin Coit and Alan Levin, Bobbie Foshay-Miller and Chuck Miller, and Marlene Nathan Meyerson.