“In 1994, I decided to depict what it is like to be alive. I started painting my life and added some friends and acquaintances to the stories. Later on, exhibition visitors and party-people joined in the scenes. In 2004, I entered the World Wide Web.

Private pictures are shared through the Net as souvenirs of an experience one can never take part in. The images are like film-stills of a movie you've never seen. I browse these anonymous fragments, trying to get involved, imagining to be there with these guys. I try to revive these shared moments and add them to my own painted adventures.

I show slices of a civilized world in which excesses are channelled through stylized formats like Art, porn, music, Internet, TV, religion or sports. We suppress lust, sadism, aggression and even euphoria to modest levels to keep interaction civilized, although these tendencies always lure behind the surface. Indulgence might be a hidden driver for men's action; it cannot show.

Anything might happen today but preferably not in public. Anything might surface but probably not today.

My paintings show men, trapped in their daily life, caught up in my brush-strokes. They will exist there, without a plot to their stories. My 'friends' lives get romanticized by the act of painting; they might regain an identity that was lost in Social Media. Will you get involved in their boredom, jokes and modest euphoria? They won't; the inhabitants of the paintings share business nor idleness; they simply exhibit

being alive.”

Niels Smits van Burgst, 2014

Niels Smits van Burgst was born in Maassluis, the Netherlands in 1970 and studied at the Royal Academy in the Hague. Since graduating in 1993, Niels Smits van Burgst has created an extensive oeuvre of paintings and drawings. This varied body of work has been showcased in many different locations across Europe and the United States, earning him a number of nominations and awards. In 2013 Museum 'de Buitenplaats' honoured his work with a retrospective. His paintings are represented in many collections all over the world.

Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam: www.zerp.nl

Witteveen Visual Art Centre, Amsterdam: www.galeriewitteveen.nl

education:

Royal Academy of Arts, the Hague 1993

AKKU Art Price 2011

Van Ommeren de Voogt Price 2007

collection Carla&Hugo Brown

collection Crow Industries, Israel

Leeuwenburgh collection, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Mebius-Kamstra collection, Nordhorn, Groningen, the Netherlands

2015

-group-exhibition with Douwe Elias and Robert Vorstman, Zofier Gallery, Heerenveen

-Paintings, solo-exhibition, World Trade Centre Gallery, Rotterdam

-group-exhibition, Walravens Gallery, Leuve, Belgium

2014

-Shared Moments, solo-exhibition at Werklicht, Rotterdam

-drawings, solo-exhibition at Gallery Jan Reinder Adema, Damwâld

-Paint It; groupshow, Witteveen Visual Art Centre, Amsterdam, curated by Arno Kramer

-Salon; groupshow at Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam

2013

-Werklicht, groupshow curated by Wilma Kun, Rotterdam

-Art the Hague, artfair, Zic Zerp Gallery

-'for show', solo-exhibition, Walravens Gallery, Leuven

-'born to be alive', groupshow with Andrej Dubravsky and Virgilius Moldovan, curated by Zic

Zerp gallery and Niels Smits van Burgst

-Summerexhibition, 'Gemeente Museum' The Hague

-'going nowhere fast', solo-exhibition/retrospective at Museum de Buitenplaats, Eelde, Holland.

-'for the sake of paint-the flood', groupshow, Witteveen Visual Art Centre, Amsterdam

-Re-Rotterdam-Art Fair, solo-presentation

-'if the kids are united', groupshow, Tetem-artspace, Enschede, Holland

-Realisme Amsterdam, Art Fair, Wackers Academy

2012

-'Turn on-Tune in', project Berlin 2012, Factory-Art, Berlin

-'the Dorian Project' , SeccondGuest/Ana Cristea Gallery , New York

-'anything might happen today', solo-exposition, Zic Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam

-summerexhibition, Gemeentemuseum, the Hague

-KunstRai Artfair, Amsterdam, Zic Zerp Gallery

-Slick Artfair, Brussel, Zic Zerp Gallery

-Paviljoen Rotterdam Artfair, Zic Zerp Gallery

-'Hans Sonneberg's choice', Zic Zerp Galerie, Rotterdam

2011

-'midsummernights dream', Zic Zerp Gallery, Rotterdam

-'chosen anonymously', summerexhibition, Gemeentemuseum, the Hague

-'Eelder eden', Museum de Buitenplaats, Eelde

-'portraits', solo-exhibition, Pulchri Studio, the Hague

2009

-Art Rotterdam, Artfair, Witzenhausengallery

-Queerulanten, Pulchri studio, the Hague

-XXLart, Grote Kerk, Veere

2008

-'stars on canvas',van Abbe museum, Eindhoven

-'stars on canvas',Gemeente museum, the Hague

-'my first solo', solo-exposition, showroom M.A.M.A, Rotterdam

-Realism Amsterdam Artfair, Mebius Gallery

2007

-Mebius Gallery, Noordhorn

-De Waker Gallery, Laag Keppel

-Najaarssalon, Pulchri Studio, the Hague

-Kunstzaal van Heijningen, the Hague

2006

-solo-exhibition, Licht&ruimte, Abcoude

-solo-exhibition, Pulchri Studio, Den Haag

2005

-Peter Pappot Art dealer, Amsterdam

2004

-Diligentia, the Hague

2003

-solo-exhibition, Pulchri Studio, the Hague

2002

-Artist in residence at project 'de Strip' by Jeanne van Heeswijk, museum Boijmans van

Beuningen and showroom M.A.M.A.

2001

-opera 'Oscar & Philip', multimedia-project in collaboration with R.Knuistingh Neven en

P.Swanborn atDoelen, Rotterdam

2000

-solo-exhibition, Pulchri Studio, the Hague

1999

-Project 'paintings at an exhibition', Rotterdam

1998

-Fay Lucas gallery, 50 Kensington church street , London

1997

-'try out 2', showroom M.A.M.A, Rotterdam

1995

-SOLO, 'het Wilde Weten', Rotterdam