Christoph Niemann: Urban Horizons

Internationally acclaimed illustrator, author and visual artist, Christoph Niemann presents his first solo exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska, in collaboration with Diogenes Verlag. Born in 1970 in Waiblingen, Germany, Niemann studied graphic design at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart under Heinz Edelmann, completing his degree in 1997 before relocating to New York City.

A long-standing contributor to The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine as a columnist, National Geographic, and The New Yorker, for which he has created over 30 covers, Niemann's work has also appeared in Wired, Newsweek, and Zeit Magazin, among others. For The New Yorker he designed the magazine's first augmented reality cover in 2016 and produced a hand-drawn 360-degree VR animation for its US Open issue. His illustrated column ran first as Abstract City beginning in 2008, before moving to The New York Times Magazine in 2011 under the title Abstract Sunday.

After eleven years in New York, Niemann relocated to Berlin, where he continues to live and work. His practice has expanded well beyond editorial illustration to encompass animation, site-specific installation, interactive digital work, and fine art printmaking. He has worked with Hermès, Google, LAMY, and MoMA. Site-specific commissions include works for the Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, the Berliner Ensemble Theatre, and the Wannsee subway station in Berlin. Niemann has drawn live from the Venice Art Biennale and the London Olympics, and once sketched the New York City Marathon while running it.

He is the author of numerous books, among them Sunday Sketching, Abstract City, Souvenir, Hopes and Dreams, ZOO, Pianoforte, AWAY, and Idea Diary. He also developed the children's apps Petting Zoo and Chomp in collaboration with Jon Huang. He is the subject of an episode in the first season of the Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design.

In 2010, Niemann was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. He has received honours from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Publication Designers, and American Illustration, and is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at leading institutions including the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna, the Museum for Art and Design (MKG), Hamburg, the Horst-Janssen-Museum, Oldenburg, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich and the Cartoon Museum, Basel.