Nicola D’Arco (b. 1975, Nola, Italy) is a contemporary visual artist specializing in the décollage technique, with a career built in Romania. A graduate of the Institute of Arts in Avellino, with a focus on graphic design and advertising photography, D’Arco combines a passion for retro cinematic imagery with an experimental approach to urban art.
Beginning with mixed media (collage and oil painting), he later evolved toward décollage — a process of “disassembling” posters and billboards to create layered works that reflect the tension between collective memory, popular culture, and advertising aesthetics. Influenced by Nouveau Réalisme and artists such as Mimmo Rotella, he explores the complex relationship between art, advertising, and cinema, evoking nostalgia while inviting reflection on time and urban space.
Nicola D’Arco has exhibited his work in significant solo and group shows in Romania, including the “Décollage” project at the National Library of Romania (2019) and “Oltre la pittura” (2023). His works are recognized for their strong visual impact and for the way they bring cultural past and contemporary present into dialogue.
D’Arco’s technique is not only aesthetic but also expressive and critical: tearing apart a poster becomes an act of protest and a dialogue with memory, with popular imagery, and with the language of advertising.
His visual language evokes both nostalgia and the tension between what is visible and what is hidden — between present and past. This layered imagery (posters / cinema) creates a visual space that invites contemplation: *what once was, what has been lost, and what we attempt to rediscover.
