Meet the team: NATALIA KOOL
Step into the world of Natalia Kool, an Amsterdam-based artist who merges nostalgia, emotion, and design into immersive painted experiences. Blending the elegance of vintage car culture with abstract, dreamlike compositions, she invites viewers to slow down, feel, and reimagine the world through color, texture, and story.
My name is Natalia Kool, and I live in Amsterdam. I work from my atelier near Oosterpark, where I create oil paintings. I first learned to paint as a child, taught by my grandparents, who sparked my lifelong love for the craft.
In my twenties, I studied Allround Styling at the Artemis Academy. During that time, I interned in New York City, and living there became a major source of inspiration for me. It was also where my obsession with vintage cars truly took off. I was captivated by the many 1960s and 1970s cars parked throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan.
But this fascination began much earlier — on my parents’ farm in a small town at the tip of North Holland. On sunny Sundays, groups of vintage cars would drive past our house, bringing with them a sense of freedom and the promise of future possibilities.
Through my work, I want to share this admiration for the beauty of vintage car design. I focus on the details — the curves, the colors, the character — aiming to evoke the optimism of the 1960s, a time when society believed anything was possible. My paintings are a reminder to stay hopeful, especially in today’s fast-moving and uncertain world.
In my abstract work, I give form to emotion and utopia. I create my own dreamlike worlds using flowing shapes and carefully chosen colors, often working with both oil and acrylics. These paintings often evolve into compositions filled with organic, bubble-like forms — a trance of texture and tone.
During my design internship at New Amsterdam in the fall/winter of 2021, I also created a few paintings. I currently work a few days a week at the New Amsterdam flagship store, and I’m excited to announce my upcoming exhibition on August 7th, in collaboration with NASA. The show will feature brand-new paintings created especially for NASA, alongside selected works from my permanent collection. The exhibition will be on view in the NASA store until September 7th.
Favorite medium to work with?
Oils — I only use Rembrandt oils. The slow drying process gives a richer end result. Since switching to oil, it's hard to go back to acrylics, though I still combine them sometimes. The contrast between the two finishes works really well in a single painting.
Favorite snack?
Sweet chili chips from Tyrells or spicy seaweed crackers from the Asian market.
Favorite place when you're not working?
In bed or in the park.
One word that describes your art?
Vibrant.
Favorite place or environment to find inspiration?
New York City, definitely — although I haven’t been in a while. But really, any experience can spark something: walking through Amsterdam, exploring cities across Europe, or hanging out with other creatives.
What do you think the future will be like?
Still making art — always. I see more exhibitions in the future, especially internationally in places like Tokyo or New York. I’d love a bigger atelier someday, with huge windows and lots of daylight.
