Richard Nocera was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1973. His formal introduction to the arts occurred while attending the distinguished Cambridge School of Weston where serious emphasis was placed on drawing, painting and sculpture. Following his graduation in 1992, he was accepted into The Parsons School of Design in New York City. During his time at Parsons, his techniques broadened and he was accepted to the prestigious Parson's Paris Program, in Paris, France, where he studied painting from 1994 to 1996. In 1996, financial constraints forced Nocera to leave Paris. He relocated to Canada’s Old Montreal Art District where he began to paint independently and establish himself as a working artist. In 1997, Nocera returned to New York and acquired a studio in the Meatpacking District where he was awarded an apprenticeship with the well-known Canadian artist, Attila Lukacs. Under Lukacs’s tutelage, Nocera began using large trowels, gesso and tar to create massive, heavily textured background surfaces onto which Attila applied his figures. Incorporating this technique into his own figurative work, Nocera’s subjects were no longer his primary focus; the painting’s surface became an additional form of expression. This laid the foundation for the materials and the tools Nocera would return to 20 years later.