Nicolas Africano

May 15 - June 28, 2025

The Nancy Hoffman Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition of recent work by Nicolas Africano, opening May 15, 2025. This will be Africano’s first solo gallery exhibition in New York in more than 20 years.

Africano gained prominence in the 1970s with his association to the transitional genre featured in the Whitney Museum Exhibition “New Image Painting.” His signature large monochrome canvases presented small figures in relief, accompanied by text, creating a theatrical and stylized narration in an enigmatic atmosphere of spare simplicity.

Africano’s work evolved into figurative sculpture, which was imbued with personal emotionally suggestive content, and influenced by literature, poetry, theatre, music and art. His figures, crafted from marble, bronze, and cast glass express an unapologetic charm and a resolute dissonance.

Nicolas Africano's art is included in the permanent collections of many prestigious institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the de Young Museum, among others.

The upcoming exhibition in May will include work from “Boy,” a body of work in which time that is defined by memory is evanescent. “Paros” is an ensemble of six bronze figures, each titled after a beach on the Cycladic island. “A Talent to Amuse” is a suite of nine gouache drawings and collages that compare the role of the Artist to that of an acrobatic performer, for whom risk is an inherent, and ironic, component of their craft.

This exhibition, opening May 15, will be a preview of Africano’s anticipated 2026 Exhibition, titled “After All,” which will feature works selected from the artist’s major themes from 2016 to the present, including “Boy,” “Rome,” and “Songs.”