ABOUT – Jildau Nijboer

Jildau Nijboer (1994) (NL)
Supported by Mondriaan Fund.

EDUCATION
2020 – 2022 | FMI Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen (NL) | MFA, Painting, Cum Laude
2013 – 2018 | Academie Minerva, Groningen (NL)

EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
Current
on show: Between the Tides of Memory, Museum Singer Laren, Laren
working: Artist in Residence, Leipzig, Germany

Upcoming
July 2025 DEFINE HUMAN, de Salon, Johanneskerk, Laren
July 2025 Rondom de Hut van Mondriaan, tentoonstelling in de Kolonie, Dooyewaard Stichting, Laren
November 2025 solo exhibition, Galerie Block C
November 2025, duo show, Yellow Gallery, Leiden

2025 | Art Fair ART ISLAND Amsterdam, Forteiland IJmuiden
2025 – 2026 | Between the Tides of Memory, Museum Singer Laren
2024 | Wetter & Moar, Museum Drachten
2024 | BOOKSHELF IV, ARTisBOOK, Groningen
2024 | George Verberg Stipend solo exhibition, Groningen
2023 | Arti et Amicitae, Amsterdam
2023 | Oerol, expeditie, Terschelling
2023 | When Joy Prevails, Galerie Helder, Den Haag
2023 | Salon WEP, WEP projectspace, Groningen
2023 | FRAMEWORK @tschumi | Tschumipaviljoen, Groningen, artwork in public space
2022 | Galerie ALTABOSCA, Gorredijk
2022 | SBK Sprouts Young Talents 2022, Loods 6 KNSM, Amsterdam
2022 | Selected Graduates, Galerie Pictura, Groningen
2022 | Graduation Show FMI Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen
2022 | RE:PRESENT, NP3 Re:Search:Gallery, Groningen
2022 | CONTOUR, galerie with tsjalling: , Groningen
2021 | Even goede vrienden, Museum Drachten, Drachten
2021 | LUNA Media Art Festival 2021
2021 | IJL, Galerie Noord, Groningen
2021 | ArtAway | artfair, Groningen
2020 | Artist’s Call, Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen
2020 | presentation and residency | Artist in Space Noordenaars, @OBE, MAF, Leeuwarden
2020 | Afslag BLV, Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen
2019 | Young Talent ArtNoord, Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen
2019 | Aanwas V, Galerie Noord, Groningen
2018| IJzingwekkend, Kunsthal 45, Den Helder
2018 | Winter Art Show, SBK KNSM, Amsterdam
2018 | SBK Sprouts Young Talents 2018, Loods 6 KNSM, Amsterdam
2018 | Jong Talent 2018, Artphy, Onstwedde
2018 | Nieuwe Oogst, Afslag BLV – Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen
2018 | Headliners, Graduation Show, de Oude Suikerfabriek, Groningen
2018 | artist-in-residence, at Drents Museum, Assen
2018 | Tiny Art Exhibition, LivingGallery, Groningen
2016 | De vierde verdieping, Groningen

PRIZES AND GRANTS (WON)
2024 | Mondriaanfonds Artist Start grant
2023 | George Verberg Stipend 2023
2019 | Jong Talent ArtNoord, Jury Prijs, Museum Belvédère
2019 | Walk of Fame, Hanzehogeschool Groningen
2018 | De kunst van het ontwerpen, Publieksprijs, LKC

RESIDENCIES
2025 Artist in Residence, Leipzig, Germany
2025 Artist in Residence, Winterresident, Dooyewaard Stichting, Blaricum, Netherlands
2023 Architecture research, august-november 2023, Sleeping Districts, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
2023 Artist in Residence, Akee Space for Culture, Aleknaiciai, Lithuania
2023 Architecture research, april-may 2023, Japan
2020 Artist in Residence, OBE, Artist in Space traject, Noordenaars, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
2018 Artist in Residence, Drents Museum, Assen, Netherlands

COMMISSIONS
2025 Window of Opportunity, commission Museum Singer Laren
2024 Site-specific work for Museum Drachten, commission Museum Drachten
2023 Artwork in public space, Tschumipaviljoen, commission Kunstpunt Groningen
2021 Site-specific work for LUNA Media Art Festival, commission Media Art Friesland, Leeuwarden

INTERNSHIPS AND EDUCATION
2024 Teacher JAM, Minerva Art Academy, Groningen
2020-2024 Guest lecturer, i.a. at Academie Minerva, Frank Mohr Institute, Noordenaars
2023-2024 Participant Talent Program Art in Public Space, Kunstpunt Groningen
2022-2023 Guest teacher, Minerva Art Academy, Groningen
2022 Guest teacher JAM, Minerva Art Academy, Groningen
2019 Internship with prof. A.S. Lehmann, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, faculty Art History, Groningen

PUBLICATIONS
Publication Proven Talent ‘BEWEZEN TALENT – Groningen: Jildau Nijboer’, Gemeente Groningen. G2K. 2024
video interview, Jildau Nijboer – Georg Verberg Stipendium, Academie Minerva – Frank Mohr Institute. 2023.
video interview Kunstpunt, FRAMEWORK @tschumi. 2023
radio interview OOGTV, FRAMEWORK @tschumi, Groningen. 2023
Agnes Winter, Metropolis M: Jildau Nijboer : painting. Eindexamens 2022
Graduation Catalogue, FUTURE, Frank Mohr Institute, 2022
Museummagazine Museum Drachten, Jildau Nijboer en Lau Man Pan: UN | SEEN. 2021
Publication Artist In Space, Noordenaars: Jildau Nijboer – FRAMEWORK. 2021
Gitte Brugman, Leeuwarder Courant, Kunst met de blik van anderen, spread. 2020
Renske Bakker, Leeuwarder Courant, Al schilderend de omgeving verkennen, “Op het Oog”, Museum Belvédère. 2020
Joep van Ruiten, DvhN, Headliners: afgestudeerde en veelbelovende kunstenaars. 2018
Graduation Catalogue, HEADLINERS, Academie Minerva, 2018

Jildau Nijboer (1994, NL) is currently based in Groningen. After completing her bachelor at Minerva Art Academy and her Masters in Painting at the Frank Mohr Institute she exhibited her work in several places and worked on commissions. Also she creates artworks for public spaces. Jildau works in her studio and on location for site-specific projects in The Netherlands and abroad. She was nominated for – and won awards and stipends like the Bruning Brongers prize, George Verberg Stipend and Young Talent Award Museum Belvédère. Her work was exhibited at i.a. Museum Belvédère, Museum Singer Laren, Museum Drachten, galeriewithtsjalling: and Galerie Helder. Her work is part of several private and corporate collections. Jildau Nijboer her practice is supported by the Mondriaan Fund.

Text by Elisabetta Cuccaro, art critic, writer and curator based in Milan

Jildau Nijboer’s work builds upon the nature of passage and exchange, addressing that which lies between things and the energy passing through. Specifically, what becomes central is the relational aspect of perception – less the interplay of forms and more the movement that surrounds them. Her work shows what happens between and within elements, and the dialogue established has an openness – multiperspectivism- that invites free interpretations. Forms hint at the possible event behind them. In Nijboer’s practice, encounters – with things or people- are materials, and yet, materials also provide an occasion for these new encounters to happen. This twofold relation carries the type of ambiguity the artist is interested in: a switch, at once responsive and ductile, distinctive and undefined.

Nijboer’s game of forms and materiality engenders an unspoken reflection on the perceptual aspects of representation. Surfaces appear as a theatre for conversations between mirrors, or better between reflections, in all of the term’s semantic ambiguity. Thoughts and illusions merge, giving rise to a recursive play that seems never-ending. Still, the materiality involved in the process anchors the experience of both creation and reception; it offers a stable frame, something vital for not losing touch with reality. Inherently, any possible notion or perspective can only be named from the nameless existence of things.