About Joe Nicastri

I'm sure every artist's psyche is quite different in particulars but also very similar in other ways. The differences flavor the similarities; the more an artist can allow the idiosyncratic self to emerge, the more interesting the flavor of the work artwork can be neurotic, but not psychotic--we have to be able to access it in some way. Design is critical for me. My work is post-classical/anti-classical, at its best, there is no hierarchy of value within it. I do not believe that anyone consciously thinks without concretizing thoughts in some way--the hidden brain can do that but not the conscious brain. I try to make my inner reality conscious (as did Jackson Pollack), but I choose to identify my inner reality through symbols we recognize in the world around us (as a result, my work is probably more obscure than his). Photorealism is a style--what the artist chooses to present is perception. I believe I paint the way our pre-articulate conscious associates/thinks. Consciousness has no timeline. The deeper the truth the harder it is to recognize it. We confuse the nuts and bolts (surface reality) of getting through the day with deep reality; deep reality is comprised of all those things we keep hidden. True reality is something that is very difficult to engage. The value of structure is that it tells you what can and cannot be there, i.e., a photorealist painting of a scene at any given moment (the fixed "photo" part of it). My deeper structure is my internal consciousness, both the part I am aware of and the part I am not conscious of. The surface structure of my work forces me to leave most things out. The computer allows me to create facsimiles of my concurrent internal realities that really just gets fixed (and limited) when I do a piece in the same way the camera fixes a moment in time in the external world. Landscape painting is a breath of fresh air.

Recognition

Joe Nicastri is a painter, sculptor, photographer and orthopedic web developer who resides in Miami, Florida. Over the past thirty years, he has exhibited his paintings and sculpture in major galleries and museums across the country. His work is represented in many public and private collections. Public collections include the Chicago Art Institute, Cleveland Museum, Philadelphia Museum, Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, Clark University, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The University of Missouri, the University of Florida, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University and The Sephardic Synagogue of Turnberry. Private collections include Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Charles Bronfman, Kirk Landon, Jim Clark, Martin Z. Margulies, Gerry Gaston, Marvin Ross Friedman and many, many others. His work has been represented in such notable galleries as OK Harris, Nancy Hoffman Gallery, Jason McCoy Inc., and Gerald Peters Gallery. Currently his work is available at the Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, Forum Gallery, NYC, and the Armand Bolling Fine Art Gallery.