Anton Ian Nielsen (b. 1992)

Anton Ian Nielsen is a Danish visual artist and author whose practice spans illustration, street art, installations and traditional painting. With a background in graphic design and industrial production, his work moves fluidly between visual storytelling, public art, and the creation of tactile art objects.

He began his career as an illustrator after receiving training at Softworld, working as a freelance designer for clients such as Save the Children Denmark and School Olympics. Alongside this work, Anton became increasingly drawn to the urban art scene, where his visual language expanded beyond commissioned design into a more independent, experimental practice. In his formative years, he also developed a distinct painting style in acrylics, which continues to inform his use of color, layering, and composition today.

During this period, he was part of a studio community with illustrators including Matilde Digmann, Clara Selina Bach, and Mette Ehlers, whose exchange and dialogue played a central role in shaping his artistic direction. He later immersed himself in the Valby-based street art collective “Friendzone,” a hub for collaboration and experimentation where he encountered and learned from artists such as Lints and Malakkai.

In 2022, Anton was selected for the Up-coming area curated by Connie Boe Boss at Kunst for Alle – Art Fair in Copenhagen, marking an important recognition of his emerging practice. The same year, he joined the graffiti team at Roskilde Festival, one of Northern Europe’s most significant cultural gatherings. Each year, 50–80 selected artists from around the globe are invited to transform the festival’s architecture and landscape with large-scale works. Anton has been part of this international team from 2022 through 2025, contributing immersive, site-specific pieces that merge illustration with the raw energy of street art.

Since then, Anton has exhibited widely across Denmark. Highlights include Emerge and Evolve (Space Gallery, 2025), Between Chaos & Harmony (Space Gallery, 2024), And the rest is your history (VÆG Gallery, 2023), and Acting Normal (Æglageret, 2023). His solo projects include Things (Art Monday, 2022), Divided Summer (Art Monday, 2021), and News (Springbrættet6a, 2012). In addition to his gallery work, Anton’s practice has been featured at festivals including WellHigh Festival (2023), Karoussel (2023. 2025), O-Days (2023), Hidden Treasure Urban Art (2022), and Slagelse Street Art (2022). His work has also been covered by Sexualia Magazine and ELLE Japan, further expanding his reach to an international audience.

Parallel to his visual art practice, Anton also writes and illustrates for children. He began self-publishing during the COVID lockdowns, and in 2024 his picture and activity book Kanin, kig indad! was released by Buster Nordic. His books often explore imagination, curiosity, and play, extending the same sense of visual exploration found in his public works into the world of storytelling for younger audiences.

Since the summer of 2022, Anton has been represented by SPACE Gallery, where he continues to develop and exhibit his artistic practice. Within this context, his acrylic painting plays a central role, allowing him to balance the immediacy of street art with the slower, more contemplative processes of studio work. His training in Technical Design, with a focus on industrial production, has given him a refined sense of space, construction, materiality, and architectural aesthetics, informing works that balance visual impact with structural presence. This cross-disciplinary sensibility allows him to navigate the space between drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation.

Through his varied practice, Anton continually explores the relationship between narrative, materiality, and environment—whether in the pages of a book, the walls of a festival, or the white cube of a gallery.