About
Nicholas Rispoli is an multidisciplinary artist and founder of Sama / سما with an MFA in Sculpture. Working across mixed media painting, drawing, printmaking and writing, his practice probes the tension between our embodiment, what lies beyond it, and the myths we inherit and remake. He creates figurative worlds that reside in the space between a Godless philosophy and a hopeful, spiritual mythology.
His work has been published in OUT Magazine and Evergreen Review. Solo exhibitions include Transmutation (2015) and Conversations with Strangers (2019) at Paul Calendrillo NY; group shows include UNDERSTORY Gallery, Cleveland; David & Schweitzer Contemporary Gallery, Brooklyn; and the Squirts Festival at La MaMa Theatre, NYC, as part of Mariam Bazeed's peace camp org. He has held residencies at HANGAR Center of Artistic Research, Lisbon; Visual Muze, NYC; and La Escuela de Diseño de Altos de Chavón, Dominican Republic, where he later returned to teach ceramic sculpture.
Committed to community arts and education, Nicholas directed programs and exhibitions at Window Studio in Brooklyn, a project supported by Brooklyn Arts Council grants. Alongside his studio practice, Rispoli has taught at Pace University, The Harlem School of the Arts, New York Academy of Art and the Bedford Hills Prison College Program, and led workshops at the Museum of Arts and Design and Manhattanville College. He also served as Assistant Artistic Director of the New York State Summer School for the Arts (NYSSSA) from 2015-2024, guiding a statewide visual arts intensive for high school artists.
His project space Sama / سما is dedicated to sustained collaborations with artists across generations of practice, rooted in the communities and histories that shape Cleveland, with a special commitment to SWANA artists.