Born at Novobelitsa station near Gomel, Mogilev province of the Russian Empire, in the family of a station paramedic.
His first teacher was the Vladimir icon painter Petrov. Local artist-student Zorin introduced Georgy Nyssa to the works of the World of Art artists. In 1919, Nyssa entered the Gomel art studio of the Gubpolitical Education named after M.A. Vrubel, where, under the leadership of A. Bykhovsky for the first time “faced with the concepts of color, image and composition.”
In 1921 he was sent to Moscow and entered preparatory courses at the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops (VKHUTEMAS, 1923-1930).
In 1923 he moved to the painting department, where R.R. Falk and A.D. Drevin. In parallel with his studies, he worked in a printing house, paid a lot of attention to sports, in particular, volleyball.
In 1926 he met Alexander Deineka. At this time, under the influence of the OST style, as well as the creativity of A. Deineka and A. Marke, the unique pictorial style of George of Nyssa was formed, the features of which are the laconicism, dynamics and heartfelt lyricism of his landscapes.
In 1928 he made his first trip to the Black Sea to Novorossiysk to collect material for his thesis. In 1930 he graduated from VKHUTEMAS, diploma work – “International at” Jean Bar “. The uprising of French sailors in Odessa ”(Tretyakov Gallery), dedicated to the Black Sea mutiny.
He spent the end of 1930 and 1931 at OKDVA, designed wall newspapers, made posters and panels. In 1936, together with A. Deineka, G. Ryazhsky and F. Bogorodsky, he traveled to Sevastopol and Balaklava for sketches, flew in airplanes, went on high-speed boats and a submarine.
The plots of the first well-known works of Nyssa, written in the early 1930s, are apparently inspired by memories of childhood passed at the station, the theme of the railway prevails in them: “Autumn. Semaphores “(1932),” On the Ways “(1933),” October “(1933).
However, in the second half of the 1930s, the artist turned to the marine theme. Nyssa painted seascapes (marinas), and in the 1940s – sea battle compositions (“Maneuvers of the Black Sea Fleet ships”, 1937; “The sinking of the fascist transport”, 1942; “On the roadstead”, 1949). In addition to painting, Nyssa illustrated a lot and remained faithful to the marine theme in illustration (Tsushima by AS Novikov-Priboy, Sea Soul by LS Sobolev).
In the postwar years, Nyssa turned to landscape landscape, he painted snow-covered forests, railways. Stations and trains began to appear more and more in his landscapes. Being a keen yachtsman (Nyssa owned a small trophy yacht-dinghy “Nerpa”), he painted the expanses of water.
Nyssa traveled extensively around the country; the impressions received by the artist on trips, he vividly and vividly embodied in his canvases. For example, a picture seen from the window of a fast-moving train was reflected in the composition “In the Far East” (1963), triptych “Port in the North” (1956-57).
In recent years, Georgy Grigorievich was seriously ill. Died in 1987. Buried in Moscow.