Nicolette Tsamos is an emerging multidisciplinary artist in the New York City Metropolitan area. Raised in Staten Island, New York, Tsamos moved to Southern New Jersey at age 10, changing her perspective on what local looked like to her. Newly surrounded by nature, she developed a curiosity for understanding it and how we interact with living things. Working with charcoal, oil paint, text, found objects, and research-based data, she uses images and natural materials to convey the importance of ethical environmental practices. She implores her audience to question the validity of current rituals, routines, and patterns in our lives, shifting our gaze on these ideas. Currently working in the metropolitan area, her work has been shown in the Wish You Were Here group show in 2024 at the NJCU Visual Arts Gallery, the Metroscapes group show in 2024 at Smush Gallery, and is currently on view at the Visual Arts Gallery for Metamorphosis, in 2025, the NJCU BFA group show.
Nicolette Tsamos is an artist concerned with the degradation of Earth's ecosystems. She is a multimedia artist who uses charcoal, oil paint, text, found objects, and research-based data and materials. With these materials, she addresses what she sees as our disconnect from the natural world. Her fascination with the negative effects of capitalism bleeding into a larger environmental impact leads the artist to draw connections between human action and its ability to shape our physical reality. She sees the molding of Earth’s landscapes over time as evidence of the alterations we have made to make the land work for us. The subsequent adaptations other living things have made due to these human alterations serve as evidence of us as a cause of detriment.
With her practice, Tsamos seeks to present concerns and offer remedies to certain problems associated with over-development and over-consumption. By juxtaposing different images and research, she questions the morality of our choices. She asks the audience to look to the past, considering if the changes we made to our landscapes are still productive in the present. When not, we can seek intervention via noninvasive infrastructure, adapting our social practices, and using other means to negate the deleterious consequences we are experiencing as a result of not questioning the morality of our environmental practices.
She is inspired by research about our natural world. In her recent project about pollution, she learned about macroinvertebrates, small but vital organisms whose presence in aquatic environments serves as an indicator of water quality. She makes art using research to bring awareness to the need for justice in our communities. As an observer, Tsamos finds it crucial to distinguish the importance of presenting processes of degradation as well as renewal. Understanding the severity of urbanization is essential, however, we must also look toward ourselves as a source of rebirth. Being the same force that causes harm yet aid, awareness of our power as a species is a fundamental part of environmental equity.
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