Nick Scalisi Aka Nistka

Nistka was born in Italy.
He started painting very early on, he recalls: "I remember my first watercolor being a Harlequin dressed in different shades of ochre, it was my first sale to a private collector, I think I was ten. I believe the piece is still somewhere in Rome."
Nistka first artistic influences were Matisse and Picasso, "both inescapable when you are born in the second half of the 20th century" he says.

He also adds to those, a mix array of artists such as Renato Guttuso, Jackson Pollock, Giacometti, De Chirico, Pasolini, and Fellini..."movies were a lot like paintings back then."
He traveled and lived through Europe as well as South and Central America during his teenage years absorbing language and culture.

Became enamored with the poetry of Lorca and Neruda and started writing his own verses and poetry, merging eventually the two art forms; trying to create images through the verses and imparting lyricism through his paintings.

He affirms "I believe that a work of art has to elicit an emotive response and establish a connection between the viewer or the reader and the artist.
We need to know that we are not alone or singular for that matter in the way we feel."

Nistka arrived in the USA as a young ...

- Boston University, Boston Mass.
- La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
- Accademia Di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
- All the people I have met in my travels.
- The fisherman in Chichiriviche that took me fishing at
dawn.

- San Bernardino County Museum, Redlands 1987
- Palm Spring Art Museum, Palm Springs 1989
- Zola Fine Art Los Angeles 1989-1992
- Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane AU 2005
- Noosa Regional Gallery AU 2004-2006
- Bondi Art Walk AU 2007
- Gold Coast Regional Gallery AU 2009-2014