Niels Kalk is an artist based in Berlin and the Netherlands. He has a knack for drawing characters, cutting & pasting collages and creating album covers. Sometimes his creations end up in an animation or music video. You can find his original art at exhibitions or in a gallery. For prints and other products, you can visit his webshop.

Niels illustrates and creates characters for clients while also working as a fine artist using the technique of collage and making drawings by hand.

Growing up in the 80s in the north of the Netherlands, Niels busied himself indoors with drawing, reading comics, playing computer games on the Commodore 64, watching cartoons at Grandma’s (she had cable), and with the toys he built from Lego. When outside it was mostly building huts, BMX and skateboarding which kept him entertained. The comics, cartoons and imagery from skateboarding culture were a great source of inspiration. From his father’s bundled Mad Magazines to watching Looney Tunes, tiny Niels took it all in. Later in life, it was absurd television programmes that sparked his imagination, like Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Young Ones, Rembo & Rembo, Jiskefet and so on… So it was no surprise that after finishing high school, he applied to an art academy.

At the turn of the century, he graduated from Academie Minerva, majoring in illustration. After his studies, Niels mainly focused on illustration assignments for magazines. In Rotterdam, he joined agency Shop Around and did illustration work for numerous brands, children’s media and later designed characters for an animated series. After about a decade, Niels returned to a more traditional way of working. Using the collage technique, he created surrealistic, sometimes absurdist works. These handmade collages were shown and sold at art markets and various exhibitions and have garnered widespread popularity. Several of his creations have since appeared in magazines, on posters and used for book and album covers. Recently, his art was used in animated form for a music video and a video installation at Hotel Berlin

Selected Projects and Exhibitions

  • 2003 UP THE HILL BACKWARDS – Group exhibition at Stip Gallery, Amsterdam

  • 2007 KIKA & BOB – Character and background designer for SUBMARINE, Amsterdam

  • 2011 POPJUGEND Shows Character at BLOOOM Art Fair, Cologne

  • 2013 STROKE Art Fair – Solo artist at Alte Münze, Berlin

  • 2014 GOOD COMPANY – Solo Exhibition at BOHEI, Berlin

  • 2015 SHUT UP I’M DREAMING – Solo Exhibition at Taiko Gallery, Berlin

  • 2016 PICTOPLASMA CONFERENCE – Artist Lecture and workshop at Kino Babylon, Berlin
    PHONY PHANTASIES – Pictoplasma exhibition at Up Gallery, Berlin

  • 2017 VINYLIZE! – Group Exhibition organised by SHOP AROUND at Concerto, Amsterdam
    SLOW – Group Exhibition at Slowroom Contemporary, Copenhagen
    ABSURD DITTIES – Solo and group exhibition at Premarts Project Space, Berlin

  • 2019 ALL OR NOTHING – Duo exhibition at YELO HOUSE, Bangkok

  • 2023 GLUEHEADS – A Berlin Odyssey into the Unreal – Group exhibition at VERBEKE FOUNDATION, Kemzeke

    and NEUROTITAN, Berlin

  • 2024 STAKOKO – Exhibit at Verwalterhaus during PICTOPLASMA, Berlin

Selected Clients

T-Mobile, Submarine Amsterdam, PLUS Supermarkt, Dead Kittens, BRUUT!, Tivoli Vredenburg, MaiNetCare, DFFRNT Media, Die Gäng, Annie Made it, City of Rotterdam, Hotel Berlin, Pictoplasma, Future Classic