Petr Nikl

Painter, illustrator, writer, musician and man of the theatre, born on 8 November 1960 in Gottwaldov (today Zlín). He comes from a family of artists — his mother was the toy designer Libuše Niklová (1934–1981) and his father the painter František Nikl (1935–2005). He studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště (1976–1980, decorative painting in architecture) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studio of Professor Arnošt Paderlík and Jiří Ptáček. In 1987 he was a founding member of the artists’ group Tvrdohlaví. At first he devoted himself chiefly to painting, printmaking and drawing; his pictures are marked by restrained, muted colour and by subjects drawn from personal and family history. He gradually widened his range to include art and theatre performance, puppet and dramatic theatre, music, photography and authored and illustrated books.

He is a member of the Mehedaha ensemble; with the group Lakomé Barky he released the albums I’m Not Afraid of the Death’s-head Moth (2004) and Přesletec (2006), and on his own, among others, Wasp (2016). He is the initiator and chief programmer of the six-week event Nests of Games. He has written and illustrated more than ten books — A Tale of Rybitinka (2001), Of Rybaba and the Sea Soul (2002), Linguistic Fairy Tales (2006), Riddle-Tales (2007), Deerlike (2008), Little Madcap (2009), Over-Riddles (2010), Yellow Lions (2011), Oddballs from Nyoo Yawk (2012) and others. He pursues photographic portraiture in the cycle Bat Princesses.

Awards: the Jindřich Chalupecký Award (1995), Magnesia Litera in the Book of the Year and Book for Children and Young People categories for Riddle-Tales (2008), three Ministry of Culture awards for “Most Beautiful Book of the Year” (1997, 2001, 2002).

More recent exhibitions: Moths — František Drtikol Gallery, Příbram (2024, works from 2023–2024 using automatism, correctives and the physical processes of coloured water and ink on paper), Substitute Face — East Bohemian Museum in Pardubice. Represented in the Magnus Art collection, among others. He lives in Prague.