Artist in Frankfurt – Contemporary Paintings by Nikolaus Kriese
Nikolaus Kriese is a German painter whose artistic practice has evolved over more than three decades. His work centers on free painting—blending gestural abstraction, figurative fragments, writing, architecture, and landscape.
His current series of works explore themes and structures of our contemporary world. The city, the economy, technology, nature, and social change intersect with personal perception and memory.
With its blend of architecture, international business, and a diverse arts scene, Frankfurt provides a unique setting for this exploration.
Contemporary Painting Between Abstraction and the Present
Nikolaus Kriese's works emerge from color, movement, layering, and fragments of visual perception.
Abstract swaths of color interact with text, figures, architectural structures, and motifs drawn from various aspects of life. The paintings evolve through the act of painting, combining spontaneous decisions with constructed pictorial spaces.
This does not result in a linear narrative. Different places, times, and thoughts can all be present simultaneously within a single painting.
Recent Works
"The Caged Parrot" in FRANKFURT (2026) – OIL ON CANVAS • 280 X 240 CM
The parrot is caught between high technology and urban architecture on one side, and spirituality and nature on the other. Both promise salvation. The angels whisper, “Do it, do it.” Money whispers, “Do it, do it.” But what comes next? What is the path?
The caged parrot connects Frankfurt’s vertical architecture with the idea of a garden. Skyscrapers, facades, and urban structures stand against a backdrop of almost overflowing greenery—as a reminder that the concept of the city originally emerged from the countryside and that nature never completely disappears, even in dense urban spaces.
IN LOVE (2026) – OIL ON CANVAS • 200 X 300 CM
HILL TOP HOUSE (2026) – OIL ON CANVAS • 200 X 300 CM
SAND HILL RD 1 MILE (2026) – OIL ON CANVAS • 200 X 300 CM
EDEN (2026) – OIL ON CANVAS • 200 X 300 CM
HOW IT ALL BEGAN (2026) – OIL ON CANVAS • 200 X 300 CM
Frankfurt – City, Architecture, and the Present
Frankfurt is characterized by contrasts. Historic urban structures stand side by side with skyscrapers, international companies, the financial sector, and an urban landscape that is constantly changing.
This interplay between architecture, economics, and social development touches on central themes in Nikolaus Kriese’s current work.
In his paintings, the city is not understood merely as architecture. It appears as a complex space of human imagination: a place of growth and freedom, but also of densification, control, capital, and change.
Frankfurt, in particular, offers an exciting intellectual and visual point of reference for these topics.
The Caged Parrot – City and Nature
"The Caged Parrot, 2026 " combines Frankfurt's vertical architecture with the concept of a garden.
Skyscrapers, facades, and urban structures stand in contrast to an almost overwhelming expanse of greenery—a reminder that the concept of the city emerged from the landscape and that nature never completely disappears, even in densely populated urban areas.
This large-scale painting thus combines architecture and landscape with the question of freedom, boundaries, and human-made living spaces.
Art and Business
The economy is not just an economic system. It shapes architecture, technology, communication, the landscape, and our view of social progress.
In some of Nikolaus Kriese’s works, these structures serve as the starting point for artistic exploration.
"SAND HILL RD 1 MILE, 2026," for example, draws on the visual imagery of a place that is internationally associated with technology, capital, and innovation. Symbols, text, and painterly fragments come together to form an image that explores notions of progress, success, and the future.
This is not about illustration or explicit criticism. Rather, painting creates an open space in which different perspectives can coexist.
Large-Scale Painting and Space
A major focus of my current work is large-format painting.
Canvases measuring two to three meters alter the relationship between the painting, the viewer, and the architecture. Color becomes a physical experience, and the painting develops a presence that extends far beyond its function as an object on a wall.
It is precisely in the interplay with modern architecture that relationships emerge between image, space, material, and scale.
This connection between art and architecture plays an important role in both fine art painting and site-specific art projects.
Art, Business, and Collections
Nikolaus Kriese's works are held in private and institutional collections and are created in a variety of formats, including monumental paintings.
The dialogue between art and spaces shaped by business interests is an interesting area of exploration. Large-scale painting can not only complement architecture but also present it with a distinct visual dimension of its own.
For collectors, companies, galleries, curators, and institutions, additional information on current series of works and individual pieces can be provided upon request.
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.
His practice, spanning more than three decades, combines free painting with experiences drawn from theater, architecture, and international artistic projects.
His current works range from abstraction to representational art. They are characterized by gestural swaths of color, layers, text, and figurative and architectural fragments.
Lives and works in Erfurt, Germany.
Between One’s Own Perspective and the Art-Historical Context
The development of one’s own artistic language does not occur in isolation from history. Painting is always, in part, an engagement with images that already exist—with art-historical traditions as well as with contemporary visual culture.
Nikolaus Kriese combines a classical, traditional artistic training with an increasingly free, process-based style of painting.
The point here is not to carry on a particular school or movement. Rather, the crucial question is what possibilities painting still holds today: as an immediate medium, as a material process, and as an independent form of perception.
Artistic Exchange in Frankfurt
Nikolaus Kriese is open to collaboration with galleries, curators, collectors, companies, architects, and institutions in Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.
The focus is on current bodies of work, exhibitions, site-specific projects, and potential artistic collaborations, as well as dialogue about contemporary painting.
For more information on current work and projects, please contact us directly.
