Nicolas Africano: Lost boy, laughing man

January 12 - February 21, 1992

Lost boy, laughing man is an exhibition of paintings and figurines by internationally recognized Illinois artist Nicolas Africano. The works in the exhibition were produced during an intensely introspective period in the artist’s life (1985-86); a time when he was working from, what he now considers, his “full depth.” In the large, high-relief paintings and small glass and bronze figurines, the dance between hope and disillusionment, role and will, and flesh and spirit is played-out in fragile narratives whose specificity and simplicity implicate universal themes of dualism and individual struggle. 

Africano, a native of Illinois and graduate of Illinois State University in Normal, was born in Kankakee in 1948. He received a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree in art and while still a student he began incorporating the written word into his paintings. Later in his career, Africano also began sculpting his figures out of glass and bronze. Writing and narrative themes have always been an important element in his work and Lost boy, laughing man will be filled with the artist's writings as well as selected paintings and sculpture from a very significant period in his prolific career.