Friendly Monsters showcases a selection of black and white drawings from an ongoing series by Swedish-German artist Nikolas K. Nitzsche-Tollet. The drawings are inspired by the artist’s hallucinations, resulting from schizophrenia. 

Nitzsche-Tollet’s work exposes a world populated by dark, often macabre-looking figures that range from monstrous eyes surrounded by teeth, to grim sailors looming in front of a lonely oceanic backdrop. However outlandish these depictions might appear, Nitzsche-Tollet’s creatures are not meant to be terrifying, but rather intriguing and endearing, as the artist himself calls them “friendly monsters”. Nitzsche-Tollet invites the viewers to look beyond the unfamiliar surface, and see the personality of each of these beings, creating a space to explore the friendly and complex side of something usually considered frightening or disturbing. 

The artist’s ability to empathize with the often misunderstood brings to mind well-known figures in pop-culture that evoke similar reactions, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, or Frankenstein’s Monster. Nitzsche-Tollet incorporates powerful symbols in his drawings, such as teeth, which, historically  have been used in literature and art to represent power and violence, yet also youth, vitality, identity, and nourishment. Often, the artist  includes a lighthouse in the distance with a lone sailor in the foreground;  both of these images provoke thoughts of  navigating perilous environments. Hands, spirals, skulls, skeletons, and eyes, are recurring motifs in Nitzsche-Tollet’s drawings.  Eyes, in particular,  are strong representations for sight, perception, and hallucinations, whereas the frequent use of windows and doors could suggest portals to other worlds.

Friendly Monsters is a remarkable example of visualizing imagination, hallucination, as well as processing the difficult experience of schizophrenia—a mental disorder that is still poorly understood. The meticulously detailed ink drawings serve as a form of expression and communication for the artist, enabling him to share and visualize experiences and interpretations of reality otherwise imperceptible to the rest of us. 

For more information about the exhibition or to book a gallery visit, do not hesitate to write to the curator Cila Brosius at crbbrosius@gmail.com (+45 53 54 85 95) or the artist Nikolas K. Nitzsche-Tollet at nikonito@gmail.com.