Berlin Artist – Contemporary Paintings by Nikolaus Kriese

Nikolaus Kriese’s works are not created according to a rigid concept. The images evolve during the creative process—through layering, overpainting, drawing, color, and spontaneous decisions.

Representational elements can appear alongside abstract structures. Text becomes a drawing; figures dissolve once again, and individual fragments remain as visible traces within the image.

This gives rise to complex visual spaces in which different times, thoughts, and perceptions can coexist.

Painting becomes an open system that oscillates between control and chance, construction and dissolution.

Berlin is a place of constant change. History, architecture, subculture, politics, technology, and the international scene all come together directly within the city.

The art scene is also shaped by this simultaneity. Museums, galleries, project spaces, and studios form an environment in which very different artistic perspectives coexist and are constantly being renegotiated.

For Nikolaus Kriese, it is precisely this openness that is interesting. His painting does not seek a clear-cut order of the present. Different perceptions, memories, and cultural fragments can coexist within a single painting.

Berlin thus becomes less of a subject and more of a conceptual point of reference for a style of painting that thrives on change, contradiction, and freedom.

Writing and symbols are playing an increasingly important role in Nikolaus Kriese's current works.

Words, technical terms, personal notes, and seemingly casual observations are incorporated into the painting. In the process, they partially lose their original function as information and become, in themselves, color, rhythm, and form.

In works such as *IN LOVE*, *BLACK OPS*, and *TESLA IS TESLA NOT TESLA*, these symbols are combined with figures, abstract structures, and intense swaths of color.

Some elements remain legible, while others disappear again beneath new layers. The image becomes a kind of visual memory—open, fragmentary, and never fully decipherable.

IN LOVE, 2026 combines intense shades of red, pink, and orange with illustrations, typography, and numerous overlays.

At the center of the 200 × 300 cm painting, a bright, almost luminous opening emerges. Around it, lines, symbols, figures, and layers of paint converge to form a complex pictorial space.

The words “IN LOVE” appear both immediate and almost casual at the same time. Personal experience and painterly construction can no longer be clearly distinguished from one another.

The monumental scale transforms color into a physical experience.

The present does not exist independently of history. Memories, cultural images, and historical concepts continue to influence us and intertwine with personal experiences and current events.

In *STERNSTUNDEN DER MENSCHHEIT*, these historical, personal, and social fragments coalesce into a complex visual landscape.

Figuration and abstraction remain in flux, as does the question of whether history can be understood as progress, memory, or a constant layering of events.

The painting does not provide a clear answer to this question. Rather, history appears as material that is constantly being reinterpreted and reexamined.

Technology has long since ceased to be limited to devices or production processes. It is transforming communication, the economy, our perceptions, and the visions people develop of the future.

This visual and linguistic world also appears in the works of Nikolaus Kriese.

In *TESLA IS TESLA NOT TESLA*, technical associations, typography, abstract forms, and intense shades of blue come together. The title itself plays on repetition and contradiction—between brand, person, technology, and cultural symbol.

BLACK OPS, too, operates in a world of codes, fragments, and dark visual spaces. Terms and symbols seem to hint at meaning without presenting a clear narrative.

The current works do not adhere to a specific color palette.

The nearly black BLACK OPS, the intense red of IN LOVE, the earthy browns and blues of STERNSTUNDEN DER MENSCHHEIT, and the vibrant blue of other series of works convey different atmospheric states.

Color is not used merely for compositional purposes. It defines the space, the sense of movement, and the emotional impact of an image.

It is precisely in the alternation between dark and extremely luminous works that a tension arises which runs through the current groups of works.

Nikolaus Kriese's independent works are created in ongoing series and encompass a variety of formats, including monumental paintings.

Individual works are held in private and institutional collections.

For collectors, galleries, curators, and art enthusiasts, additional information on current series of works and individual pieces can be provided upon request.

In-person viewings of the artwork and studio visits are available by appointment.

About Nikolaus Kriese

Nikolaus Kriese has been working as a painter since 1995. After attending the Wettin Art Boarding School, he completed an apprenticeship as a theater painter at the Erfurt Theater and in Berlin from 2003 to 2006.

This training in the craft forms part of an artistic practice spanning more than three decades. Over the years, this has evolved into an increasingly free and process-based style of painting.

His current works range from abstraction to representational art. They are characterized by gestural swaths of color, layers, text, and figurative, technical, and architectural fragments.

Lives and works in Erfurt, Germany.

The large-scale works are created in the studio over extended periods of time and through numerous layers of paint.

The creative process remains visible throughout. Overpainting, corrections, drawings, splashes of paint, and seemingly random marks are not completely removed but may remain part of the finished painting.

That is precisely what constitutes an essential part of the works: The image not only depicts a result, but also embodies the story of its own creation.