BIO
Antonella Nicoli (b. 1992, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a Berlin-based visual artist working with eroticism, humor, and visual storytelling. Self-taught and with a background in costume design and multimedia, her practice moves fluidly between disciplines. Drawing from fashion and vintage erotic cartoon comic strips, her figurative compositions are both confrontational and playful, built around scenes that feel instantly familiar and quietly subversive at once. She creates richly textured, small to medium-scale canvases that navigate the edges of filth, beauty, and laughter. In 2026, her painting Commuting Is Fun received 3rd Place in the Multiple Figure category at the Tom of Finland Foundation Erotic Art Contest.
STATEMENT
I paint desire the way it actually feels: loud, funny, a little ridiculous, and completely alive. My figures are female, exaggerated, and openly sexual, bimbo archetypes rendered with the glossy excess of vintage cartoons and adult magazines, pushed until pleasure becomes the whole point rather than a punchline. Working in a Neo Pulp style, I lean into camp and hyperbole to celebrate sexual joy as something worth taking seriously, even while I'm laughing.
I sketch each composition by hand, sometimes on paper and sometimes straight onto the canvas, before building it up in oil, acrylics, ink and fabric, using mixed media to keep the surface as rich and tactile as the subject matter demands.
At its core, my work is an argument for pleasure, for the female body as a site of humor and fun rather than shame or control. I'm interested in how these hyper-feminine, hyper-sexual figures can be both fantasy and self-possessed, ridiculous and sincere, all at once.
RÉSUMÉ
Antonella Nicoli
Born 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Resides and works in Berlin, Germany
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2020–2022: Multimedia Art & Design Studies, Escuela Da Vinci, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2010–2013: Haute Couture Dressmaker Modelist Degree, Instituto de Alta Moda Roberto Piazza, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2011: Costume Design and Production, Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2011: Theatrical Makeup and Hairstyling, Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2010: Scholarship for Young Artists, Casa Escuela de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026, Scout (group exhibition), Galleri Heike Arndt DK, Kettinge, Denmark
2026, The Female Show 2026 (group exhibition), Munich Art Gallery, Munich, Germany
2026, Fresh Legs (group exhibition), Galleri Heike Arndt DK, Berlin, Germany
2026, Ausländer (group exhibition), Prachtsaal, Berlin, Germany
2026, Self-Portrait Competition (group exhibition), Bushy Pony, Berlin, Germany
2026, Concrete Fantasies (solo exhibition), Gravity Bar, Berlin, Germany
2024, The Future We Want (group exhibition), Nebula97, Berlin, Germany
2024, Motion (group exhibition), The Holy Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2024, Pixel (group exhibition), The Alchemical Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2024, Group Exhibition, B23 Space, Berlin, Germany
AWARDS
2026, Painting “Commuting Is Fun”: Multiple Figure – 3rd Place Winner, Tom of Finland Foundation EAC 2026