Nicholas D’Ornellas (b. 1997) is a Guyanese-born printmaker and weaver based in Jersey City, NJ. He holds a BFA (2021) from The Cooper Union for The Advancement of Science and Art. His focus includes printmaking as a vehicle to explore domestic life within immigrant narratives through life-sized, handwoven, screen-printed textiles. Nick’s work pays homage to his ongoing interest in the functionality of craft and also his family’s flight from racial and classist violence in Guyana. He physically threads together the layered emotions that come with being within a deeply consuming family structure. Nick’s hand weaving can be understood as both rehearsal and transformation of memory.
Nick has shown in exhibitions in Kathryn Markel Fine Art in New York, NY; JC Print Room in Jersey City, NJ; Chashama 266 Project Space in New York, NY; BOB’S Gallery in Brooklyn, NY; Art150 in Jersey City, NJ; Studio Nine Dee in New York, NY; Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia, PA; Deli Gallery in New York, NY; MANA Contemporary in Jersey City, NJ; Redline Satellite in Denver, CO; and the Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery in Jersey City, NJ. Nick has been an artist in residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Pentaculum Residency in Gatlinburg, TN; EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Kahn|Mason SIP Fellow; Virginia Center for Creative Arts Winter Residency in Amherst, VA; and Penland School of Craft in Bakersville, NC. He is a recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, a Creative Microgrant from YoungArts The National Foundation for the Advancement of Artists, an Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Jersey City Arts Council, the Richard Lewis Bloch Memorial Prize from Cooper Union School of Art, and the Anthony S. Guadadiello Memorial Art Scholarship from the Jersey City Board of Education.
Nick teaches printmaking workshops at JC Print Room in Jersey City, NJ, and 92NY Art Center in New York, NY and is the Printmaking Area Manager at Hunter College, Department of Art & Art History in New York, NY.