Christoph Niemann

Christoph Niemann is an artist, author and animator. His illustrations are frequently featured on the covers of The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. His Instagram account @abstractsunday has over a million followers. His oeuvre has been subject to numerous museum retrospectives. He has drawn live from the Venice Art Biennale, the London Olympics, and he sketched the New York City Marathon — while actually running it.Clients include Hermés, Google, LAMY, and MoMA.

Christoph Niemann’s work is featured in an episode of the Netflix documentary, Abstract and a TED Talk on the power of visual language. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2010.

Solo exhibitions: TBT (Nashville, 2026), Hopes and Dreams (New York 2019)

Group exhibitions: Holiday (Nashville, 2025)

See below for selected works and CV.

Christoph Niemann CV      

Born in Waiblingen, Germany 1970. Lives and Works in Berlin, Germany

EDUCATION

1997 B.F.A. Graphic Design, State Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart, Germany

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2026    ZieherSmith, Nashville, TN

Horst-Janssen-Museum, Oldenburg

2025    Plan C Frame, Milan

2024    Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim

Gallery Janet Borden Inc., New York

2023    BITTELvonJENISCH Galerie, Hamburg 

2022    Galerie Kicken, Berlin

Gallerie D’Italia, Vicenza

2021    Geistesblüten, Berlin

2020    National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest

2019    Geistesblüten, Berlin

Schloss Bonndorf, Bonndorf

2018   Deutsche Oper, Berlin

Literaturhaus, Munich

ZieherSmith, New York

2017   Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

SVA Gallery, New York

Galerie Stihl, Waiblingen

Cartoon Museum, Basel

Colette, Paris

2016   Museum for Art and Design (MKG), Hamburg

2015    Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Vienna

Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

2014    Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt

Mercator Institute, Berlin

2014   Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

Galerie der Stadt Backnang, Backnang, Germany

2010   NLB Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia

2005   Gallery Nine, New York Times, New York

2000 Galerie Le Lys, Paris

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 Schau Fenster, Berlin

“Faces of Mind”, Haus.Kunst.Mitte, Berlin

“On the Road again”, Verkehrsmuseum Dresden

2025 Ostfriesland Biennale

“Covering The New Yorker “, L’Alliance New York Gallery, New York

“Berlin im Siebdruck”, TIP Berlin, Neurotitan Gallery

2024 “Where the Wild Lines are”, Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum, Munich

“Die lieben Nachbarn! Deutschland und Österreich”, Wilhelm Busch Museum, Hannover

“OPENFILE”, Chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai 

“anPFIFF!”, Wilhelm Busch Museum, Hannover

2023 “Outside the Box! When Machine Meets Art”, Chimei Museum, Tainan

2022 “Question Mark”, MoCA Museum, Shanghai

2021 “Big City Life “, Cartoonmuseum, Basel

“Illokonstanz”, Turm zur Katz, Konstanz

2020 “Rasenglück”, Museum Penzberg, Penzberg

“CollAGE”, Semjon Contemporary, Berlin

“A Perfect Day 2” Machinegebouw Westergas, Amsterdam

2019 “Look Both Ways”, SVA Gallery, New York

“MiiC”, Abanca Foundation, Santiago de Compostella

2018 “The Therapist Office”, 1969 Gallery, New York

“thinking tools”, 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo

2017 “Talking Pictures”, Metropolitan Museum, New York

2016 “New Gameplay”, NJP Artcenter, Korea

“Drawing After Digital”, Xpo Gallery, Paris

2015 “As far as the mind can see”, EXPERIMENTA 2015, Lisbon and Porto

Blue Rider Art, Taipeh City, Taiwan

“Framed by FUKT”, Satellite, Berlin

2014 “Zelf Weten”, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam

Berga Urban Museum, Vicenza, Italy

“Complaints,” Wolfsonian Museum, Miami

2013 “Tear Sheet”, PNCA/MoCC, Portland, Oregon

2011 “Being American”, SVA Gallery, New York

“Project Mah Jong”, Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York

“Der Traum vom Fliegen”, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

“It’s about Time”, Ben Maltz Gallery Los Angeles

2010 Design for the flags on the roof of Nationalgalerie at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

“Hall of Fame Laureates 2010”, Art Director’s Club, New York

2007 “When Hansel Met Gretel”, Gallery Met, New York

2005 “Catalysts”, The cultural force of communication design, Lisbon

“The Art of The New Yorker, Eighty Years in The Vanguard”, Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

2003 “Neue Illustration”, Deutsches Haus of NYU, New York

“National Design Triennial: Inside Design Now” Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York

2001 “Young Guns”, Art Directors Club, New York

1999 “Young Guns”, Art Directors Club, New York