Paris · São Paulo · since the 1980s
French-Brazilian visual artist. Painter, sculptor and ceramicist, he creates with pigments he extracts himself by grinding precious stones, minerals, plants and metals. Four decades of work between Paris, São Paulo and the world.
Nikko Kali was born in São Paulo and grew up in the north of the city, in a home filled with classical music, the artistic milieu both his parents came from. In the 1980s he moved to France to study, and Paris became home and point of departure: from there he went on to live in the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and India, gathering a repertoire of colors, techniques and traditions.
Before living from art alone, he trained as a gemologist: he earned a master's degree from the Institut National de Gemmologie in Paris in 1990 and worked as a designer and gemologist for Place Vendôme jewelry houses. That craft is the origin of his painting's signature: pure pigments ground from precious stones, minerals, plants and metals, at times with jeweler's tools.
Today he calls himself French-Brazilian and splits the year between the Paris region and Brazil, with a studio in each country.
"However French-Brazilian I may be today, the heart is Brazilian."
Nikko Kali · Programa VIP interview, 2016 (in Portuguese)
Sources: official biography · ArtMajeur · ANBA · Novabrasil FM
Nikko Kali's work follows the map of his life. On one side, the cities and studios; on the other, the series and milestones each place left in the painting. Scroll to follow both lines.
A childhood in a family of classical musicians. His eye takes shape between sheet music, street festivity and the color of the city.
He goes to France to study. The city becomes home, and Brazil a constant presence on the palette.
The line that joins the European school to vibrant Brazilian color begins to take shape.
Works as a designer and gemologist for great jewelry houses on the most prestigious square of French jewelry.
Master's in gemology from the Institut National de Gemmologie. From intimacy with stones comes the idea of grinding them into pigment.
Years living in the Gulf and in Asia, between the gem trade and the research of colors and traditions.
Ancestral techniques, ornament and geometry enter the vocabulary that now runs through canvases, ceramics and sculptures.
An exhibition season in Brazil's Center-West.
Show at the Sesc Arsenal Cultural Center, in Mato Grosso.
Consolidates his career on the Paris scene, between galleries and international fairs.
Takes part in three editions of an art fair at the Carrousel du Louvre, the exhibition venue adjacent to the museum. Also shows at Galerie Arteconte, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and at Espace Mandara, in Pont-l'Abbé.
During the pandemic, the Paris studio becomes refuge and laboratory.
Gouaches of organic shapes and fields of pure color, signed "Paris 2020". A minimalist breath within the work.
Since the pandemic, he spends half the year on the São Paulo coast, his Brazilian studio.
The new show "Sensations", with around 80 pieces, in the city that adopted him. On the horizon, the goal of a show in Dubai.
Splits the year between the Paris region and Brazil, with a studio in each country and constant visits to São Paulo.
The work continues across three media, always with the stone pigments that became his signature.
Note: timeline assembled from the official biography, ArtMajeur and interviews. Exact years of each move are to be confirmed with the artist.
Black calligraphic line over fields of intense color: Nikko Kali's canvases and papers converse with the tradition of Miró and Kandinsky, but speak with a Brazilian accent. Below, a selection from the artist's collection.
Note: descriptive captions. Official titles, years and dimensions of each work are to be confirmed with the artist.
In the year the world stopped, the work took a breath. The series signed "Paris 2020" trades the calligraphic line for organic form: fields of pure color floating on the white of the paper, like polished stones in suspension.
Nikko Kali's signature begins before the brush. The artist uses no industrial paint: he extracts his own pigments by grinding precious stones and other minerals, plants and precious metals, at times with jeweler's tools. It is the gesture of a gemologist who decided to paint with the matter he knows best.
The result is a palette of rare intensity, applied to a range of media: canvas, paper, ceramics and sculpture.
Each work takes three to four months to complete. Pieces start at 35,000 euros, and the most notable one, according to the artist, was sold for 100,000 euros: a commission that today covers the wall of a penthouse in Singapore. His raw material, he says, comes from Brazil itself, "where I can find practically every color of the rainbow".
"People always ask me why I do not use oil paint, which is much easier. And it really is, but what draws me is the artisanal process."
Nikko Kali to Veja São Paulo, Mar 2024 (in Portuguese)
Sources: official biography · ArtMajeur · Novabrasil FM · Veja São Paulo
Brazil, Japan, China, Italy, Spain, England, Portugal, Singapore, France: the list of countries where Nikko Kali has exhibited gives the measure of his career, according to the Praia Grande City Hall.
Three participations in an international art fair at the exhibition venue adjacent to the Louvre museum, in the heart of Paris.
Exhibition in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, historic quarter of the Paris galleries.
Show in Brittany, in the west of France.
Exhibition at the Sesc Arsenal Cultural Center, in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
The new show "Sensations": around 80 pieces at the Nilton Zanotti Art Gallery, highlighted by "Jardim de Majorelle", a deep-blue tribute to the botanical garden of Marrakech.
Sources: Praia Grande City Hall · ANBA
Invited to exhibit at the world’s leading design week, in Milan.
Source: Veja São Paulo, Mar 2024
With collectors already established in the United Arab Emirates, the next goal is a solo show in Dubai.
Source: ANBA, Dec 2025
Photos of recent exhibitions will appear here. The Instagram profile @nikkokali holds the most current records.
Note: partial list, based on ArtMajeur and the official biography. The full exhibition history is to be confirmed with the artist.