Valerio Nicolai’s painting places the canonical subjects of art history—still life, landscape, and genre scenes—in dialogue with banal objects, everyday images, and prosaic situations, creating a tension between the exalted and the absurd in which drama and humour coexist. In 2015, he was included in Shit and Die, the exhibition produced by Artissima and curated by Maurizio Cattelan. Selected solo exhibitions include Sole con le code at Clima Gallery, Milan (2022), Birthmarker at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon (2021), Amarena at Clima Gallery, Milan (2019), and Trasformazione permanente di un mago in formica at Treti Galaxie, Turin (2016). He also participated in Pittura Italiana Oggi at Triennale Milano. He received the Osvaldo Licini Prize in 2023 and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2020–21. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 2013 and lives and works in Milan.