The Disturbingly Dark Paintings by Nicola Samorì

Italian artist Nicola Samorì was born in 1977 in Forlì. Nowadays, the artist lives and works in Bagnacavallo. Nicola Samorì’s paintings and sculptures are inspired by the work of the old masters but with the addition of scary motives to achieve this dark mood.

Nicola Samorì is Baroque-style paintings simultaneously evoke a sense of romance and violence. His Renaissance figures, first painted against classically dark backgrounds and bathed in chiaroscuro lighting, are then marred with smears of paint layered over their faces or with paint and material scratched away. In some cases, the paint is thinned so as to obscure the figure’s details behind a haze.

Working in a style influenced by Baroque portraiture—for example, the rich colors and heavy shadows—Samori intensifies the emotion and drama by mutilating his subjects. Faces are painted over or ripped apart, exposing an abstraction of bloody insides; torsos hover omniously in the darkness, their flesh melting away into nothing. By disturbing the human form, Samori disturbs the human mind. His sculptures are created with a similar aesthetic, destroying the image of the body to elicit feelings of unease. By combining classical styles with modern horror imagery, Samori reveals fear as the permeating force that it is, ravaging the lofty realms of art history with its primordial viciousness.

“My work stems from fear: fear of the body, of death, of men. I think my nature as an artist is something like feeling hopeless. Works are just temporary shelters and painting is a leisure place where you can conceal yourself.”