Jacoba Niepoort in Scheibbs

Jacoba Nierport is a 33-year-old Copenhagen based muralist who has been painting in the public space for a long time. The Dane loves to experiment with scales on all sorts of public buildings, since this is where most people can see what she visualizes. Today, she has painted over 40 murals across twelve countries on four continents. Her most famous and monumental works are located in Halifax (Canada), Santiago (Chile) and of course, Copenhagen (Denmark).

Her work is based on her belief that connectedness in all aspects of life enables a better understanding of self and others. She sees it as a powerful tool to address and change social issues. Jacoba expresses and shares the most naked experiences of herself and others. With these created emotions she hopes to touch every viewer. Her main goal is to interrupt the mainstream feelings of disconnection, indifference, bias and „-isms“. By „-isms“ she means racism, sexism and all these negative „-isms“ people have to experience in everyday life. She shows that underneath, we are all alike, thus seeking to humanize that which has become dehumanized or alienated.

This is her working on her mural in Halifax, Canada. The foundation of this piece of art is a photo she took of a little girl from the town. Eventually, she got this on a bigger scale and it now adorns the city of Halifax.

iOnArt also brought her talents to Austria, where she visualized one project in association with ARTCANHELP. Before she was coming to the lovly Scheibbs she was painting together with HNRX in Graz. After rocking the wall she was coming to Mural City – Scheibbs where she painted next to an old Mausoleum of „Andreas Töpper“. She created an image of resting bodies with the town shield of Scheibbs and photos of spears taken from the town hall on the bottom. The attempt was to create a drawing that bonds together the wall’s histories and current times. The project wants to go deep into human relationships.

What the Copenhagen-native enjoys most about being an artist is: the quiet periods alone in her studio, where she deeply digs down. She also loves the process of visualizing an idea. The most inspiration for her comes from other artists, from nature and social experiences. For her, it is extremely satisfying to touch someone else emotionally with her art.

What does the future hold for Jacoba?

We don`t know but she is always happy to be back in her studio in Copenhagen. For now she has to work on a couple exhibitions in Denmark and the Netherlands till the end of 2020. Hopefully, we can see her art in Austria in the future again, too.