Niccolò Moronato

About

Niccolò Moronato is a visual artist frequently based in Italy and the United States.
Through video, language, food, and the practice of collage, he explores the contradictions of the world, focusing on manifestations of concepts that colonize the mind and body: order, landscape, identity, public space, tradition, and progress.
His artistic practice began without any formal academic training in 2016, and since then, he has always sought schools more than showcases, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where he attended Continuing Studies classes.
Since 2015, he has been teaching Language Design at Politecnico di Milano, aiming to foster a critical, not just practical, approach to the art of creating names, words, and concepts.
His artistic approach is informed by his background in economics, foreign languages, and advertising, giving him a critical, ironic, and deconstructive perspective.

STATEMENT

My work explores the hidden mechanics of power through cartography, collage, and artistic interventions, drawing from my background in languages, economics, and advertising.
I create works that expose how landscape, technology, marketing, and historical narratives function as tools of subjugation and exclusion, particularly focusing on the linguistic and cultural processes that colonize mind and space.

My projects function primarily as forms of public service, engaging audiences with different levels of curiosity, in their own environments. This commitment to accessibility leads me to work through public art, collective imagination sessions, and interventions in marginal communication media.
Having started and developed my practice independently, I engage with concepts that permeate everyday life - tradition, progress, cultural identity - examining how these assumed universals shape and constrain communities.
My practice is deeply influenced by my home environment in the south Venice lagoon, where industrial fishing merges with domestic life and public spaces shift fluidly between private and common use.

Whether through mapping colonial histories or investigating contemporary systems of cultural influence, my work builds experiences that reveal glitches in societal logic. Through each project, I trouble singular imaginations and question established truths about history and humanity, inviting audiences to exercise their curiosity - a practice that renders them less predictable in the eyes of the systems controlling them.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024
Trattoria Guaiana, IUNO, Rome.
Curated by Giulia Gaibisso.
Trattoria Guaiana, Villa Romana, Florence.
Curated by Mistura Allison.

It takes two to tango - experiments in emotional flags, with Ginevra Collini, SpazioMensa, Rome.

2022
Para Ovejas - restaurant for sheep, installation in Garzón, Uruguay, as part of CAMPO Art Fest 2022.

Leisure, participatory installation inside the Temple of Serapis / Macellum, Pozzuoli, Italy, winning project of Flegreo per il Contemporaneo call, curated by Attiva and hosted by the Authority for Archeaological Sites of Naples.

Rethinking Nature, group show, MADRE Museum, Naples, curated by Kathryn Weir and Ilaria Conti.

2021
Notes from the Bureau of Compromised Plans, show on Yes&No Magazine, London.

Address Unknown, group show, Edicola Radetzky, Milan, curated by Giulio Verago.

2020
The Smallest Controllable Element, part of Era Vulgaris group show, SpazioGamma, Milan

OOOroscope, TART 2020, Teletext of YLE (Finland’s National TV), Helsinki.

2019
An Alternative Map of the Universe, public program and group show departing from Firmament, curated by Jessica Taylor, supported by International Curators Forum and featuring works, videos, and talks by Larry Achiampong, Ewan Atkinson, Niklas Gustafson, Versia Harris, Emre Kazim, Paul O’Kane, Katarzyna Perlak, Pilar Quinteros and Abbas Zahedi.
Guest Projects, London (UK).

Firmament, solo show, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Arts, London (UK), nurtured with Claudia Contu.

OOOroskop, Ars Electronica Festival 2019, Linz
public teletext broadcast on ARD (German National TV) and ORF (Austria).

The Star Survey, Gasworks, London.
The Star Survey: Viperaria, Archivio DOCVA, Milan (performed with Rashayla Marie Brown).

OOOroscope, public teletext broadcast on RAI (Italian National TV).

2017
Franco e Renata (collab. with Thomas Berra), Pastificio Cerere Foundation, Rome.

Last In/First Out, porter’s lodge of Palazzo Archinto, Milan.

ri-RIP, performance and presentation of the second mapping, Gardens of Porta Venezia phonebooth, Milan.  

How do you say goodnight? at The Dangerous Professors, group show, Triumph Gallery, Chicago.

2016
RIP, installation and presentation of the first mapping, Viale Brianza phonebooth, Milan.

Part of Subculture Fanzine group showcase, Edicola Radetzky, Milan. 

SCHOLARSHIPS/AWARDS

NCTM e l’Arte grant, Milan, 2024.

Italian Council 11 Artist Research Grant, issued by the Italian Ministry of Culture, to develop a public program for project Guaiana Toscana, 2023. 

RESIDENCIES

October 2024 – IUNO, Rome.
April 2024 – PlayTime, Spazio Mensa, Rome.
December 2022 – CAMPO Art Residency, Garzón, Uruguay.
November 2022 – Flegreo per il contemporaneo, Pozzuoli (Naples).
July 2022 – Uva artist in residence, Nizza Monferrato.
November 2019 – Guest Projects, London.
January - December 2019 – VIR ViaFarini in residence, Milan.

COLLECTIONS

Collezione Panerai, Firenze
Collezione ViaFarini / Collezione Brusarosco
Collezione ViaFarini / Ferrari
Joan Flasch Collection, SAIC, Art Institute of Chicago. 

SUPPLEMENTARY COURSEWORK

2020 – AfA Masterclass, international artist-run masterclass program.

2020 – Painting: materials and methods, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

2018 – Drawing from Imagination, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

2017 – Experimental Drawing and Painting, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.