Nicole Maye Luga

Nicole Maye Luga is an American landscape painter working primarily in oils in a contemporary traditionalist style. She studied painting at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, earning a four-year diploma in painting and completing the Master’s Program. A prolific, award-winning artist, she exhibits in national juried shows, museums, and universities, including the National Midyear Exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art for five consecutive years and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Fellowship Annual Juried Show since 2019. Her work is part of The Fellowship’s Permanent Collection. She exhibited in the Ohio Arts Council Biennial at the Riffe Gallery and the Medici Museum of Art in 2023-24. She was awarded The Individual Artist Excellence Grant FY2025 from The Ohio Arts Council. Recent achievements include winning First Place and the Artist Choice Award at the Ohio Plein Air Society 2025 Annual Competition in Millersburg, Ohio, and receiving the Fellowship Award of Excellence from the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 128th Annual Exhibition. Nicole will be having three solo shows this year: March 2026 at The F.A.N. Gallery in Philadelphia, April 2026 at BAYarts in Bay Village, Ohio, and from July through September 2026 at The Hoyt–Main Galleries in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Please visit https://nmlstudio.org/ for more information.

Statement

This exhibition reflects my commitment to painting the world as I see it. This is my Philadelphia, with all its layers, unfiltered and always in motion. When I go for my walks I look for the stories woven into everyday experience, the small details that give a place its resonance, colors that excite me. 

I follow my instincts. No embellishment needed. The city as I see it.

Manus mea, lex mea.