Born in 1964, Rinke Nijburg is a Dutch artist known for large-scale works in charcoal, pastel, ink and pen — drawings that feel closer to mythology than to observation. Pieces like Dracunculus vulgaris and Lagoon stretch well over a metre across, dense with the plant, animal and cosmic imagery that runs through his practice.
Nijburg trained at the Academy of Visual Arts in Arnhem, then at Ateliers Arnhem and the prestigious Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His talent was recognized early: the Royal Subsidy for Free Painting in 1992, the Buning Brongers Prize in 1994, and the Prix de Rome in 1998. His 2005 survey at the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Piercing the Spirits of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, framed his output as nothing less than “a cosmology in 144,000 images.”
His work now sits in major Dutch collections, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Fries Museum, and the Centraal Museum.
Since 2001, Nijburg has also taught at ArtEZ in Arnhem, and this year marks 25 years in the classroom — a milestone recently celebrated with Close Encounter with a Syzygy at Art Gallery O-68, an exhibition pairing his work with more than two dozen former students. As he put it himself: it was never about transmitting a style, just about walking alongside people on their own journey.
www.ftn-books.com recently added he Art & Project invitation fro the Nijburg exhibition to its inventory.