Nicola de Maria (Born 1954) was born in Foglianise, Italy. In glowingly colorful, largely abstract pictures, he gives visual expression to his deep respect for nature, as well as to his own longings. De Maria composes and improvises with color fields and splotches of paint on canvas, brilliantly radiant streaks, velvet and even paper. Almost as though he wanted to visually capture the expanse, sounds and rhythms of the entire universe in his many pictures. De Maria’s style of painting is constantly changing and yet ever true to itself, full of optimism and ease, and full of vitality and joie de vivre. De Maria began his career in the early seventies with photographic works. From 1975 onwards, he creates a wealth of drawings on paper, first in pencil and later in watercolor oil and pastel.
With increasing success he began to apply paint directly onto walls and produced small canvas paintings. In 1988, the artist presented a series of insightful and characteristic works on paper. The works were those he created between 1985 and 1987, and he presented them under the title Triumph of Compassion (“Trionfo della Carità"). The artwork was a display of a wealth of knowledge of forms and colors - a world full of energy. De Maria is among the five principal artists of the Italian Transavantgarde movement. Others include Mimmo Paladino, Enzo Cucchi, Francesco Clemente, and Sandro Chia. De Maria’s work focuses on abstraction and pictorial approach. De Maria has exhibited at Documenta 7, the Venice Biennale, the XVI Bienal de São Paulo, the Quadrennial in Rome and the IV Biennale of Sydney.
