Nicolai was born in Reykjavik (Iceland) in 1964. From very young age trained in the studio of his uncle painter Oddur Steinthórsson, his personality is characteristic of a wanderer, a pilgrim who lives and works between Beijing, Paris, Madrid and Reykjavik. Conceptual and mystical, poetic and provocative, the artist seeks to represent nature in its most intimate way. His first exhibition was held in Paris with "Hommage à Mishima" in 1980, since then, his works have been exhibited in various galleries and museums around the world.
Although human beings glorify their individuality. Since the beginning of history. Man has acted more as an element of the mass, then that of an individual. His tastes and impressions of the world are often manipulated by one or a few individuals. Thus are born different trends, fashions and isms, from accidents and perhaps obsessive behavior of a few strong individuals.
The power of the animal instinct or sexual instinct, call it what you may. Has been a driving force in mans creativity. And the intimate parts of the female have always inspired man. Nicolai realizes this better then most and is not shy in showing his carnal obsessions and desires. In the moment of the painters brutal bruch strokes of the human flesh on the canvas. That seem to be controlled, with a precision, as if the sadists would be playing his favorite melody, on only one string.
His vision of the female, is brutal pleasure. But even more then this, the door of heaven through which we all enter into this world. His interrogations on our limits as an individual. Interrogation, on when is a loved one, no longer loved. When does pain separate us from pleasure. If death plays a part in creation. The ritual of sacrifice, as if the painter had sacrificed the female or rather some of her most intimate parts, on to the viewer. And the research of the secret balance between beauty and ugliness.
In the work of some artists one can feel and see that there is no barrier between modern art and tradition, no isolated period, no limitations, only the totality of art and it's history melted into the mind of the creator. Nicolai is a prefect example of this. A man that has been wrapped up in black leather for the greater part of the last century and what there already is off this one. Like a monk that had dedicated his live to only one love, that is: "painting". "Says that only in art does he look for changes".