pier nicola d'amico

Funny, he doesn’t look like a particle accelerator. But that’s how Pier Nicola D’Amico describes himself. “I’m interested in collision, in smashing atoms together and seeing what happens.” Or you could call him a mischievous provocateur, the man who delights in watching what happens when music, light and video are slammed together with no place to go but a 100-foot wall. Either way, you have Nic– a founding vision in the modern projection art movement. He is also, by the way, a photographer, DP, director, entrepreneur, and founder of Klip Collective and Monogram film and motion boutique. 

Nic’s life is a cultural collision in itself. He was born in Trieste, Italy, where his father was a production designer in Rome’s Cinecittà studios. The family moved to Philadelphia, where Nic grew up.  He made his way to New York to study photography and painting at Cooper Union and immersed himself in the NY urban subculture. 

His Lost Archive, just released, is a portrait of that time, of punk friends and lovers struggling to find themselves in music, drugs and the grimiest parts of New York and Philadelphia in the early 1980’s.

Eventually Nic returned to Philadelphia and commercial photography, embracing digital capture and post while it was still a risky enterprise. He has shot major league athletes (nude), musical superstars, supermodels, politicians, skateboarding icons and everyone in between.His motion work includes commercials and extraordinary brand films for national advertising agencies. His clients find him to be an artist but not an artiste, someone who can listen and turn a strategy into a powerful, moving, iconic message.

Nic also loves to nurture creative talent, which led him to co-found and run Klip Collective and Monogram.

Klip Collective–which Nic will tell you was “originally a socialist ideal”- is a creative and production studio that creates immersive visual experiences by combining media technology with cinematic story telling. Klip imagined the site-specific video installation as a new media platform, patented it and launched it as a new channel for brands and institutions. Their best-known works are experiential building projections, mapping for national retailers, liquor brands and cable networks.  The“socialists” are now a national powerhouse, partnering with major agencies to create everything from aerial experiences to guerrilla stunts.

Monogram is a film and motion boutique that offers production through post services. Like everything D’Amico, Monogram has a special love for non-traditional content. 

Nic remains fascinated by the collision of science and art. Inspired by technological breakthroughs in everything from brain imagery to art creation, he sees this as an exciting time to be alive.

He and his wife live in Northern Liberties, one of Philadelphia’s vibrant creative communities.