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Nicolina Morra (b. 2003, Long Island, NY) is an artist who explores systems of belief and the aesthetics of transcendence. Working from found imagery and digital archives, Morra blends a blurred painting technique with hyperreal detail, creating paintings that exist between clarity and obscurity. Her work examines how perception is shaped by desire and meaning is manufactured through acts of looking and longing.
Nicolina’s debut NYC solo exhibition will be opening at Marge Gallery on October 30th.
Hi Nicolina! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! First question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you in Brooklyn / Queens?
Nicolina: Hello! The pleasure is all mine! I wake up relatively early in my apartment in Bushwick and make my breakfast with a shot of espresso. Right now, breakfast has been an omelette with plenty of Valentina hot sauce. Then I walk over to my studio in Ridgewood. I always have a goal for what I’d like to accomplish in the studio each day, and I plan it out in my head the night before. I’m in the studio until around 6’oclock, after which I walk home to have my dinner. Right now, dinner has been a rice bowl with sardines, cucumber, and avocado with plenty of lime juice.
I’m curious, growing up in Long Island, what was life like there? And what kind of kid were you? What did you enjoy doing?
Nicolina: My family moved from Long Island to Florida when I was in elementary school, so most of my memories take place there. The move really upset me, but my parents figured that I would learn to love Florida. I never really did, and always wanted to return to New York. I was a pretty quiet and shy kid. I always got very good grades and loved to read. I did make some friends and have very fond memories of my childhood. We were really into the Warrior Cat book series and would spend our days playing in the woods of my friend’s backyard. We would find bugs to play with and collect plants and berries to make our own pretend potions. I was a really imaginative kid and would always be in my own make-believe world.
Do you remember approximately at what age your creative side started to show? And when did you start taking being an artist seriously?
Nicolina: In elementary and middle school, I was always known as the “artsy” one that was good at drawing. I was always really proud of this title. When I was a freshman in high school, I felt like my school wasn’t providing me with the resources I wanted in order to take art more seriously. I did some research and found a high school a little further away that had a visual art magnet program and asked my parents if I could transfer. They have always been very supportive of my artistic endeavors, so they let me. I suppose that was the first major decision I made that showed myself and other that art was becoming more than just a hobby.
Ok Nicolina, with these next series of questions, I will try to delve into your work as best as possible. So…. Your paintings often revolve around longing. What is it about that topic that resonates so well with you?
Nicolina: I’ve always been inspired by portal narratives and hidden-world fantasies, in which characters abandon the real-world and find themself in new magical realm, or simply discover the magical elements of their own world. Stories like Spirited Away (all Studio Ghibli films, really), The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, and Alice in Wonderland are all examples of this.
My favorite movie as a kid was My Neighbor Totoro. I remember one time when I was home sick from school that I sat in front of the tv and watched it on repeat for the entire day. The part where Mei follows the small forest spirits through the bushes into Totoro’s home inside a tree as always stuck with me. I’ve always hoped for my own forest spirits that would lead me somewhere magical.
I think that my love for these stories is where my longing comes from, and it is somewhat of a resting state for me. Longing for something more. A magical experience. The possibility that there is another world just beyond the one I know, or that something extraordinary might reveal itself within the ordinary.
With that in mind, you’ve described longing and devotion as part of our search for transcendence. Do you think the need to believe in something is essentially human?
Nicolina: While I am no philosopher, I think sense-making and a transcendental impulse are fundamental human capacities. Belief and faith in something larger than ourselves are natural responses to a seemingly unanswerable question like, “What is the meaning of life?”
Religion, celebrity culture, conspiracy theories and fandom can all appear in your work. What interests you about the similarities between these seemingly different systems of belief?
Nicolina: Devotion.
Do you think contemporary culture has simply replaced traditional forms of worship with new ones — celebrities, brands, musicians, online communities or even objects?
Nicolina: In a way, yes. I think an archaic human transcendental impulse persists and changes, always.
There is often something seductive about belief in your paintings, but also something slightly unsettling. Are you interested in the point where devotion becomes obsession?
Nicolina: I think devotion and obsession can be separated by a very thin line, and sometimes my work wavers on that line.
UFO sightings, religious visions and celebrity encounters can all involve people desperately wanting to see something extraordinary. Are you interested in how desire can actually change what we think we are seeing?
Nicolina: Absolutely. When we desperately want something to be, we become much more willing to interpret ambiguity as evidence. I’m definitely guilty of this too. I am the type of person to consider random things as signs from the universe.
You’ve mentioned that meaning can be manufactured through acts of looking and longing. Can we ever look at an image objectively, or are we always projecting something we want onto it?
Nicolina: I think no one sees anything exactly the same way. I wish I could switch bodies with someone, even just for a few minutes, just to see what another brain feels like. Sometimes I get sick of mine.
You’ve incorporated Beanie Babies into a number of paintings, but you’ve never really explained why you started painting them. What initially drew you to them, and what did they come to represent within your work?
Nicolina: When I made Altar (The People’s Princess), the first painting depicting Beanie Babies, they definitely functioned as relics and gestured toward the kind of hope they once symbolized. They were projected to be worth thousands in the future, so they became objects onto which people could project their desires and hopes. Now, they also feel like symbols of broken promises, in conjunction with a certain persistence of faith.
As I’ve continued painting Beanie Babies, they’ve taken on a larger symbolic role in my work. They’ve become a way for me to think about desire and the hope for transcendence. In newer paintings, they have taken on the role of UFO and even the Virgin Mary or Archangel Gabriel. I like the humor and tension between something so unassuming and the possibility that it can become a vessel for transcendence. I also think they are fun to paint.
Red circles recur throughout your work, but you’ve rarely explained them. Where did that motif originate, and what does it mean to you?
Nicolina: The red circles originated from online visual culture, particularly YouTube thumbnails and internet hoaxes. They are especially popular in UFO photography. They’re a way of drawing attention to something that may or may not actually be there. Evidence of nothing, essentially.
I like the idea that a red circle makes you search for something you believe must be there, without even knowing what that something is. It creates an expectation of discovery, even if there’s nothing to discover. There’s something funny about that, but also something that connects to my interest in finding something extraordinary within the ordinary.
You frequently begin with images that already exist — film stills, photographs, internet archives, old footage and online forums. What makes one anonymous image stand out among thousands of others? What do you look for?
Nicolina: I look for the magic.
The internet gives us access to an almost infinite archive of images. Does that abundance make images feel less meaningful to you, or does painting give them significance again?
Nicolina: I think there is some significance to every image, a painting just gives it a different significance. For me, I think the act of choosing the image and dedicating myself to it through my painting process is what changes it and charges it with a more sacred energy. The process of painting consumes a lot of time and energy, in addition to being very intimate. It is an act of devotion.
You blur, crop and distort found images, while other elements are rendered with almost hyperreal precision. What determines what you allow us to see clearly and what you deliberately withhold?
Nicolina: I like to play with the tension between what is within and what is just out of reach. The aspects that are ‘out of reach’ are usually circling an emotion or feeling. Something ephemeral. I want the hyperreal elements to feel tangible – like a promise or evidence of something.
Do you think an image becomes more powerful when we cannot fully understand what we are looking at?
Nicolina: There is definitely something exciting about an image that gives you just enough information to make you curious, but not enough to give you an answer. I think mystery gives room for the viewer to participate. That’s something that I am working on in my paintings, actually. I want more wonder.
You’ve painted objects associated with beauty, childhood, religion and popular culture. Do objects carry meanings of their own, or do we give them their power?
Nicolina: I think both options are true. Objects carry their functional meanings, but then we charge them with our own personal meanings, memories, desires, and associations. I think that’s what makes certain objects so interesting to me. Something can be completely ordinary in one context and become incredibly meaningful in another.
There seems to be a tension in your work between wanting to believe and knowing that belief may be irrational. Is that conflict something you experience personally?
Nicolina: Yes.
You have previously spoken about your fascination with groups such as Heaven’s Gate and the comfort that extreme belief can offer people. What interests you more, what people believe, or why they need to believe it?
Nicolina: While I think both aspects are interesting, my work definitely revolves more around the “why”.
Do you think loneliness plays a role in devotion, whether someone is joining a religion, following a celebrity, entering an online community or believing in a conspiracy?
Nicolina: Of course. Everyone is just craving connection and a feeling of belonging.
If transcendence once belonged primarily to religion, where do you think young people look for it today?
Nicolina: I wish I knew.
What have been the strongest visual influences on the way you paint, whether artists, cinema, photography, religious imagery or things you’ve encountered online? And are your conceptual influences different from your visual ones?
Nicolina: I think there is a lot of overlap between my conceptual and visual influences. My catholic grandmas’ paraphernalia have been the strongest visual and conceptual influence on my paintings. The way I paint has been influenced heavily by Early Netherlandish techniques and Gerhard Richter’s blur paintings. Some other contemporary artists that I love and have inspired me lately are Mariko Mori, Louise Giovanelli, and Leon Berkowitz. UFO photography archives have also been a large source of inspiration. So has looking out the car window.
Can you walk me through your creative process from beginning to end result?
Nicolina: Sometimes I know exactly what I want to paint next. I’ll have a vision of a memory or feeling, and I’ll find reference imagery that I can work from. This method is always satisfying. If I don’t know what I want to paint next, I turn to my archive. My computer is filled with folders of images that I have saved from various places that I’m constantly adding to, and I scroll through these to see if anything is echoing and wants to be painted. Once I have the image or images that I want to work with, the process is always the same. I work through my idea in photoshop, cropping, warping, and combining until it feels right. The mockup that I make in photoshop is almost exactly how the finished painting will turn out. I like to have a clean, outlined plan.
Can you also tell me about your use of symbolism?
Nicolina: I like when a symbol can be familiar enough to recognize immediately, but strange enough to wonder why it’s there.
How do you approach color?
Nicolina: I have a natural predisposition toward a more muted palette, and it’s really hard for me to use bright colors. My body genuinely fights me on it. So if you ever see a painting with parts that are noticeably saturated or brightly colored, just know I tried really hard! That being said, I do favor the muted palette of my innate bias.
I start all of my paintings as a grisaille and then apply transparent layers of color over it. This definitely contributes to the muted palette, but also to the luminous, soft, and glowing effect that I strive for in a lot of my paintings. I love the way color can seem to emerge from within the painting rather than simply sit on its surface.
So with what we just talked about, what are you hoping to convey?
Nicolina: I want to convey the feeling of walking through a labyrinth and seeing a bright shining light in the distance. Or laying in the grass under a tree and the leaves are swaying so the sunshine dapples on your face. Or seeing a UFO outside your window, but having no way to prove it. The smell of frankincense and myrrh.
Ok Nicolina, now to something totally different. In a parallel universe who would you be? and what would you be doing?
Nicolina: This question constantly makes me spiral. At this moment, maybe the universe where I am a cellist is the most parallel.
Outside of art, what’s something you’re obsessed with right now, maybe a hobby, a show, or even a food, that keeps you grounded or inspired?
Nicolina: I’ve been obsessed with sudoku, watching Interior Motives on YouTube, and stressing over my potted plants.
Can you tell me a story about a time when a connection with someone had a big impact on you?
Nicolina: Some of my most meaningful connections involve people that I’ve met briefly during the day. I never learn their names and I never see them again. There is something about those encounters that stay with me.
What qualities do you find most important in the people you choose to spend time with?
Nicolina: Authenticity, humor, curiosity, whimsy. I like having friends that will catch on to the bit and go with it for maybe a little too long.
Anybody you look up to?
Nicolina: My nonna. And the trees.
What motivates you?
Nicolina: Restlessness.
How would you describe a perfect day?
Nicolina: I wake up early with the sun, make breakfast and coffee with the radio on. I put on my favorite outfit that pairs with the weather outside: A sunny but chilly fall day. My hair looks perfect. I have a favorite song that I listen to on repeat on my walk to the studio. I see some cute dogs walking and cats looking out windows on my way there. I paint for a few hours and I love what I’ve done. I start walking home, but I notice something sparkling on the ground in front of me. I kneel down to see what it is, but I feel a hot gust of air on the top of my head. I raise my head and see a beautiful black horse standing over me. The horse kneels down so I can mount it, which I do, and it starts to run. Maybe it also has wings and we fly away. That would be perfect.
Alright Nicolina, I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
Nicolina: I mentioned My Neighbor Totoro being one of my favorites when I was a kid, but I have to admit that it is still a favorite now. Another childhood favorite that I’ve been wanting to rewatch is The Thief of Bagdad. Seven Beauties is a movie that I watched a few years ago that I think about very often and need to rewatch. The Shining, Silence of the Lambs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show are three that I can watch any day, anytime. I can’t forget The Last Unicorn or Grey Gardens either.
The second is. What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
Nicolina: I’ve been listening to Leila by Kourosh Yaghmaei and Love for the Sake of Love by Claudja Barry have been on repeat for the past few days. I’ve also been really into Nigerian and Habibi funk like William Onyeabor, Maxwell Udoh, and Al Massrieen all summer into fall.