Roben Nieuwland

I was born in Madrid in 1981 in the tender age of zero. As it was hard to express myself in words, I started doing so by drawing. Since then I comunicate better with a pencil than talking.

I was never a good student. The only thing I liked were the textbooks with ilustrations and if not, I would fill the white parts with my scrabbles. The relationship I had with my teachers was never productive, it is not good to mingle a bad student with dull and demotivating teachers. With seventeen I started studying in a drawing school, but the teachers I had weren't very enthusiastic either. So I finished school and decided to become autodidactic and finally live from my drawings, since they lived from me.Thankfully or consequentlly to my stuburness, I spent a long time in my room improving and after a lot of effort, I finally got my first jobs.

Born in Australia in 1982, Kareem Rizk is a Melbourne-based collage artist, illustrator and designer who graduated from Monash University in 2004 with a Bachelor in Visual Communication.

After graduating, Rizk’s creative interests began to turn to fine art and illustration, particularly mixed media collage. While working as a Graphic Designer at Melbourne’s No.1 selling newspaper, The Herald Sun, his interest in collage continued to develop and by 2006 it became a focus of his endeavours.

Since his shift of focus to fine art and illustration in 2006 and his pursuit of developing his style, Rizk has gained extensive international recognition and has been noted as one of the contemporary masters of collage, as well as one of the premier mixed media artists working today.

Working mediums include collage, acrylic, oil pastel, pencil, solvent transfers and acrylic transfers. The work is highly textured and often multi-layered with a nostalgic and weathered quality. Rizk’s works can often be vibrant with colour, while others display a very refined or minimal palette.

Working methods also extend to digital collage with a very gritty and realistic display of texture and layering. The digital work began as an experiment in blurring the line between handmade collage and digital collage.

Other work includes freelance illustration, design and art commissions for various clients including news and editorial publications, galleries, university institutes, the boutique fashion industry and the music and entertainment industry.

Exhibitions include solo shows and group shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, London, Stockholm, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid and Milan. Rizk's work has been published in numerous high profile art magazines and books and his work is held in private collections worldwide.

Graphic designer