Interview
Nike Kama
Nike Kama was born on 26 July 1979 in Kazakhstan, on the Mangyshlak peninsula, in the city of Aktau. Since 1999, she has been living in Berlin, Germany. Nike Kama is not an academic artist, but an individual who expresses herself in the language of images. She wants to convey her own emotions and evoke positive emotions in the viewers. Since her childhood, she has been interested in esotericism, symbols and the supernatural. She believes that some symbols transmit an energy that can have a positive influence on a person's future. These can bring success in business, love and health.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I am an artist of naive art. I don't have a specialised art education. I have a secondary vocational education. I am a tax worker, accountant. Since 2012, I am not working in my profession. All my life, I dreamed about creative activity and saw my paintings in dreams and I really wanted to write them. In the ninth grade, I moved to a new school and got into a class with an artistic bias. It was there, for the first time, that I felt empowered to draw. My first drawings were made with a simple pencil on heavy paper, at home, in my free time from school. In October 2010, I painted my first painting ‘The Dragon of Wealth’ and became a naive artist.”
What does your work aim to say? Does it comment on any current social or political issues?
“I'm far from politics. I try to accept people as they are. I hate criticism and try not to criticize anyone. All people are different and have the right to be like that. I believe in people. Everything in life starts with love and words. For me, words are treasures. I am very interested in their secret meaning. All pictures I write with my soul and love and only in a good mood, with pure thoughts. I want to fill our world with light, love, beauty, energy, which enlivens and emotionally transports to a happy time, childhood. I want to see happy smiles on faces. Everything in life begins with love and words. Each of us has a different animal living in us that protects us or endows us with abilities, for example, the Chinese horoscope or the beliefs of the Indians when their names were hawkeye or sensitive ear. When I look at people, I see or feel which animal prototype protects him.”
Do you plan your work in advance, or is it improvisation?
“There are images that come in dreams. I see them like paintings. Others come at times when I talk about love, feelings. The images pop up in my head and are added by understanding the words. I write them down immediately, so that they are fully formed, manifested in their glory, they will wait for their time. This does not mean that a single image will become a whole picture. No; it can only be a fragment of a painting. I love most of all when there is a flash in my head and a rush of feelings and emotions that I have to run home and start creating. Work goes fast, you don't notice time or space, it's like everything is in a fog, there is no sense of reality. I can always create, but I need solitude and silence. Nothing comes out of nowhere. My paintings are unique, I don't copy them, because you can't get back the time, feelings, emotions, the moment in which the original was created. The energy content of a painting is very important to me. I have a constant flow of images and ideas. My personal power is love and soul. They are immortal. Fantastic creatures are drawn by hand or I see their silhouette on the canvas and just trace them, and then give them shape and fullness.”
“All paintings are painted on canvases with acrylic colours, sometimes acrylic paste is present. My paintings do not have frames.”
Are there any art world trends you are following?
“I follow only my inner sensations and feelings, seeing and understanding, perceiving the fantasies of my inner world.”
What process, materials and techniques do you use to create your artwork?
“All paintings are painted on canvases with acrylic colours, sometimes acrylic paste is present. My paintings do not have frames.”
What does your art mean to you?
“This is my life. My paintings are the best thing that happened to me in my life.”
What’s your favourite artwork and why?
“Sometimes, I hear that a real artist must always be in doubt, dissatisfied with his work, constantly improving his paintings. That doesn't suit me at all. I love all my paintings. They are all beautiful to me. I never correct my paintings. I believe that everything is as it should be. So every line, dot is in its place and should have been there. I don't have any paintings that should necessarily stay with me. I wish all my paintings to find their home, their loving people whom they will protect and please, bring happiness, prosperity and love.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I have had solo exhibitions in Germany in the capital Berlin and in Russia in the capital Moscow. I have also participated in group exhibitions in Paris, Milan, Berlin, Venice, Basel, New York, Monaco, Zurich, Dubai, China, Tokyo (Japan), Mallorca, Moscow, Seoul (Korea), Zug (Switzerland), Innsbruck (Austria), Grenada (Caribbean Islands), Los Angeles, London, Melbourne (Australia) , Athens (Greece).
In December 2019, four paintings took part in the shooting of the Russian film ‘Evening of Jesters or Seriously with Hello’ directed by Lilia Trofimova. The film was released in December 2020 and was part of the film festival. In July 2025 I won first place in the competition ‘Dali Moustache’ in Spain with my film ‘Immortality’. In November 2024 to February 2025 there was an exhibition ‘Cultural Symphony’ in China, in the city of Chongqing, in the Hong Art Museum from the art consortium Pashmin Art. 29 artists from 11 countries, 200 paintings were presented there. I was one of the 29 artists from 11 countries! My ten paintings were shown for three months.”
