Work samples

  • Punish me torture me but let me live
    Punish me torture me but let me live
    Punish me torture me but let me live, 2021 mixed media, 31 x 16 inches [Image description: A white cardboard panel against a white wall. Cut out images of several figures from Dracula 1931 are arranged on the panel. Drawn on the panel are red square windows, dashed lines forming a pentagram, and a crucifix needle. Stapled on the panel is a square of a leather jacket with “punish me torture me but let me live” written on it along with the polyamory symbol. Below that is another piece of cotton fabric with a condom on it.]
  • Don't Plague This Entombed Lungs Crisis Resent Police Resent Therapy
    Don't Plague This Entombed Lungs Crisis Resent Police Resent Therapy
    Don't Plague This Entombed Lungs Crisis Resent Police Resent Therapy, 2020 mixed media, 16 x 24 inches [Image description: A white cardboard panel against a white wall. Cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of a silhouette of the island and a figure washing hands in the head of another figure rowing a boat with another person being split in half are all pasted on the cardboard, along with blood-like wax, inhaler instructions, a barcode, a pentagram, and the written text, “Dont plague this entombed lungs crisis resent police resent ther-apy."]
  • I Will Never Leave the Island
    I Will Never Leave the Island
    I Will Never Leave the Island, 2020 mixed media, 15 x 35 inches [Image description: three white torn cardboard panels against a white wall. On the left panel are cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of people with multiple bodies and heads growing out of each other, two people embracing, and pharmaceutical text. On the middle panel is a cut out image of a large head with an antler growing out of the forehead and more pharmaceutical text coming out of the mouth down onto a person holding a trident and a red inhaler. On the right panel are more cut out images of people, one head exploding into a graph, a head on a pillow, and Cerberus.]
  • Vorvolakas Die Alone
    Vorvolakas Die Alone
    Vorvolakas Die Alone, 2020 mixed media, 17 x 25 inches [Image description: Two white cardboard panels against a white wall. On the left panel are cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of a large face with its eyes closed, a pillow torn away in blood-like wax from the face, and small distorted figures below grabbing at each other and holding a trident. The right panel has a small drawing of the Isle of the Dead in the center with a yellow and dark grey geometric shape around it and the number 5562191 going through it.]

About Nic

Baltimore County
Nic Koski (pronounced like "Neek Kah-ski") was born and raised on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Nic received a Bachelors of Science in Philosophy from Towson University in 2020. Nic continues to live and work on Piscataway land.
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Isle of the Dead 2020

Over 300,000 people in the U.S. died from COVID-19 by the end of 2020 with many more living in isolation and even worse conditions entering into the beginning of 2021. The people who have been most affected include those who are autistic and intellectually disabled, people of color, LGBTQ+, chronically ill, incarcerated, houseless, and elderly. Despite the risk, many people, particularly conservative leaders and media, refuse to take proper precautions or outright deny the full reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blatant disregard for fellow human life seems to only be growing in the United States. While I’ve been self-isolating and working when I can, the reality of COVID-19 and my disposability as a Disabled Queer person has been constantly present. This sense of disposability is reflected in the use of trash (cardboard, pharmaceutical waste, makeup, wax, fabric) and trash aesthetics (horror imagery) throughout my work.

Not everyone can take to the streets, so these are my protest signs.


  • Dont Plague This Entombed Lungs Crisis Resent Police Resent Therapy
    Dont Plague This Entombed Lungs Crisis Resent Police Resent Therapy
    Dont Plague This Entombed Lungs Crisis Resent Police Resent Therapy, 2020 mixed media, 16 x 24 inches [Image description: A white cardboard panel against a white wall. Cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of a silhouette of the island and a figure washing hands in the head of another figure rowing a boat with another person being split in half are all pasted on the cardboard, along with blood-like wax, inhaler instructions, a barcode, a pentagram, and the written text, “Dont plague this entombed lungs crisis resent police resent ther-apy.”]
  • My Boris Karloff Liver-Heart Up 263,000 Buried First Wind
    My Boris Karloff Liver-Heart Up 263,000 Buried First Wind
    My Boris Karloff Liver-Heart Up 263,000 Buried First Wind, 2020 mixed media, 16 x 24 inches [Image description: a white cardboard panel against a white wall. On the panel are cut out black and white images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of two figures speaking into an island connected by blood to severed bodies below, and a lone figure in the bottom right corner looking at a silhouette of another figure.]
  • Sleeping Myself in Chronic Wax
    Sleeping Myself in Chronic Wax
    Sleeping Myself in Chronic Wax, 2020 mixed media, 17 x 16 inches [Image description: Two white cardboard panels against a white wall. The top panel has cut out pharmaceutical text overlaid with red wax, two connected silhouettes, and a pentagram. The bottom panel has more geometric shapes cut out of images from Isle of the Dead 1945. More pharmaceutical text is overlaid along with stacked cardboard with red wax dripped over.]
  • Vorvolakas Die Alone
    Vorvolakas Die Alone
    Vorvolakas Die Alone, 2020 Mixed Media, 17 x 25 inches [Image description: Two white cardboard panels against a white wall. On the left panel are cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of a large face with its eyes closed, a pillow torn away in blood-like wax from the face, and small distorted figures below grabbing at each other and holding a trident. The right panel has a small drawing of the Isle of the Dead in the center with a yellow and dark grey geometric shape around it and the number 5562191 going through it.]
  • Wax Play on the Greatest Isle of the Dead
    Wax Play on the Greatest Isle of the Dead
    Wax Play on the Greatest Isle of the Dead, 2020 Mixed Media, 17 x 16 inches [Image description: Two rectangular white cardboard panels on a white wall. The bottom panel has three cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 in the shape of legs and the silhouette of a person all framing the number “227,000” which is highlighted by a yellow incline. To the left of the cut outs is a red splatter of wax. The top panel has another cut out image of a silhouette casting a yellow triangle over the number “5278169?” To the right is a stack of smaller cardboard rectangles with a red stripe on the end.]
  • Boris K(arl)off in My Chest
    Boris K(arl)off in My Chest
    Boris K(arl)off in My Chest, 2020 Mixed Media, 15 x 33 inches [Image description: Three torn white cardboard panels side-by-side against a white wall. Left-side panel is in the shape of a large rock with overlapping cut out black and white images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of hands in water and a large trident. Middle rectangular panel has more cut out images of someone lying down with three other figures coming out of their chest, two almost kissing, and one looking over their shoulder at the other two, along with a bloody hand and trident and another figure at the bottom of the panel looking toward the other figures. Right-side panel is in the shape of a shoulder with a blood-soaked black cloth.]
  • Boris Karloff in the Pharmacy
    Boris Karloff in the Pharmacy
    Boris Karloff in the Pharmacy, 2020 Mixed Media, 17 x 22 inches [Image description: two torn and overlapping white panels of cardboard on a white wall. Cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of multiple decapitated figures, stairs, and a large head falling into a pit of spikes are pasted on the cardboard. Toward the top reads, “Boris Karloff In”.]
  • You Broke the Doctor's First Order
    You Broke the Doctor's First Order
    You Broke the Doctor's First Order, 2020 Mixed Media, 16 x 16 inches [Image description: a white cardboard panel with another torn panel overlapping it. Two black and white cloth pieces are draped over top with red splatters. A cut out image from Isle of the Dead 1945 of an arm holding a trident impaling a bloody head overlaps pharmaceutical text. There are two other cut out images of a beach and hands reaching into water, along with inhaler instructions.]
  • I Will Never Leave the Island
    I Will Never Leave the Island
    I Will Never Leave the Island, 2020 Mixed Media, 15 x 35 inches [Image description: three white torn cardboard panels against a white wall. On the left panel are cut out images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of people with multiple bodies and heads growing out of each other, two people embracing, and pharmaceutical text. On the middle panel is a cut out image of a large head with an antler growing out of the forehead and more pharmaceutical text coming out of the mouth down onto a person holding a trident and a red inhaler. On the right panel are more cut out images of people, one head exploding into a graph, a head on a pillow, and Cerberus.]
  • Waking to Find Myself Entombed Without Air
    Waking to Find Myself Entombed Without Air
    Waking to Find Myself Entombed Without Air, 2020 Mixed Media, 15 x 35 inches [Image description: Three large white cardboard panels. On the left panel are three cut out black and white images from Isle of the Dead 1945 of a beach and arms reaching into water. On the middle panel are more images of two people shaking hands, one large hand reaching out over a face, an oarsman, a three-headed officer wearing a mask, and Cerberus, along with a piece of cloth and pharmaceutical trash. On the right panel are three more images of a beach and arms reaching in and out of water.]