Prins Nicolas (b. 1987, Moscow) graduated from LUCA School of Arts Brussels. He’s an artist of Russian & Nigerian descent.

Nicolas paints carefully in multi-layered applications of oil on canvas to achieve the desired atmospheric qualities and emotional tenor of the final work. Each painting is characterized by a sense of movement, a fluidity reflected in the opposing properties that coexist on the canvas – hard and soft, light and dark, flatness and depth. Such oppositional symmetry is at the heart of the artist’s practice and infuses his paintings with an embodied inquisitive gaze, directly inviting the viewer to engage and explore open-ended states of possibility and meaning.

Prins Nicolas weaves imagery culled from photo archives, art history, film stills, hagiographic icons and personal photographs to explore themes of queer identity and tenderness. His evocative figurative paintings and drawings are formed by an incredible wealth of introspection. They negotiate feelings of loneliness, isolation, desire, and safety through the lens of the artist’s own autobiographical narratives and crafted mythologies.