
Robin Nas, aka Zenk One, feels at home. At home in his city, at home in the style he has developed, and at home in how he applies it to ever new forms. “Working more spatially, creates new ideas and possibilities that you don’t always have in the two dimensions of an illustration.”
On the table is a wooden puzzle with plenty of notes written on it. The pieces of wood are cut into shapes reminiscent of the typical linework of Robin Nas, aka Zenk One. Next to it is a piece of wood with paint samples, a color palette also familiar from his illustration work of recent years. His partner Anne comes down the stairs with a tacker in her hand, she had just been busy upholstering some objects in that same palette. Their tastefully decorated home in Breda is not only where they and their two children (ages 3 and 5) live, but also the workshop where the next chapter in Zenk One’s creative evolution is born.
A world to dive into
The first steps in that evolution began some 25 years ago, when Nas was still snooping along the railroad tracks at night with a spray paint can. “Full of adrenaline,” he recalls. “I got to know a lot of people through it and gained friendships. It really is a world to dive into. And I didn’t get out of that for a long time, either.” He still seeks out friends from that era a few times a year to spray paint a piece somewhere. But he let go of the urge to proof that graffiti writing brings. “Now it has become pure relaxation. So it doesn’t matter if it’s a master piece.”
He also let go of the hyper-realistic style with which he received much praise at the time. “In the long run, I didn’t see much challenge in that anymore,” the creator looks back. “In between I also illustrated a lot, and I noticed that the work of others that I found really inspiring was much more graphic. That really appealed to me.” It triggered him even more to get out of his comfort zone and to start illustrating in a different way.

Creative evolution
That decision did not happen overnight. In a creative process that eventually spanned years, more and more graphic elements came into his work. The creative evolution he went through is strikingly evident in the various projects he accomplished during that time in collaboration with Blind Walls Gallery. “When you make your living with a certain form or style, it’s hard to move away from that,” Nas knows. “I was fortunate to work with this party that dared to go with that.”
In 2016, for example, he painted another realistic lion’s head in Breda’s Picenistraat, adorned in a stylistically simplified lace collar. This consists of a flat color, just like the Spanish soldiers in his ode to Godevaert Montens, mayor of Breda during the Eighty Years’ War.
Two years later, in Meidoornstraat, he painted an ode to Ramon Dekkers, the Muay Thai world champion nicknamed “The Diamond” who died unexpectedly in 2013. The exuberant composition centers on a sleek diamond, and a fragment of Dekkers’ face is the only realistic element.
The panels he painted for the “Church Inside Out” project completely omit photorealistic elements. Nas was one of the artists inspired by the interior of the Grote Kerk in Breda in 2020 to embellish the building fence around it during its restoration. He worked exclusively in the warm, earthy tones and deep blues that can now be found in countless of his illustrations and paintings. Just like the deliberate lines, all applied in equal thickness and with a special sense of balance.



The strength of simplicity
A note hangs in his studio today. “Strength of simplicity, in form and color,” it reads, a reminder of a personal goal. “Try to challenge yourself with minimal means to achieve as much as possible. This does not always succeed in every work, but it is the starting point,” the artist explains. After all, when he manages to create a strong image in a few lines, such a thing feels many times more personal and enjoyable than trying to approximate reality in paint.
In the language of shapes he developed, even faces no longer appear to be necessary. “There hasn’t been a moment when I’ve considered drawing them,” he observes with some surprise. Nas collects his thoughts for a moment and continues. “There is no specific idea behind that, it just came about that way. I always look at it as abstractly as possible-eyes, a mouth, details like that don’t fit in anymore. And it’s ultimately not at all necessary for an image. A body position also says a lot. It was just right.”
The latter seems to be the crux of many of his compositions. There is a remarkable balance in how the line of one figure can continue into another, or echo or mirror it. “That interplay of lines is something I really want to get right,” Nas says. “It’s a search for how things fit together. How can the line of a sleeve match the line of a neck of another figure? Things like that.”
Working spatially
The fact that he developed a visual language in which everything makes sense does not mean that the process toward it is complete. Currently Robin Nas, together with partner Anne, is busy seeing how far he can push it. After all, within an illustration he determines all the boundaries himself, but working in other shapes and materials offers new challenges that always require their own solutions. “Working more spatially again provides new ideas and possibilities that you don’t always have in the two dimensions of an illustration,” he says.
The aforementioned pieces of wood lying against each other on the table are a good example of how practice influences the Zenk One visual language, and vice versa. “I can’t make a lot of undulations and flowing lines in this because it has to be upholstered, then you would get wrinkles in the fabric,” Nas explains. “So you’re forced to work very straight. But with that, you do want to tell something, to create an image that represents something.”
It is far from the only time when practice forces a different way of working. “With the plaids/wall hangings you were forced to work with two colors, something you ended up being very enthusiastic about,” Anne knows. “Yes, also because it is woven, which provides an extra layer in your imagery,” Robin replies. “My lines are often very clean and fluid, but now it becomes a kind of pixel-like version of that.”



Coming home
Anne, who worked for years as a graphic designer, is closely involved in this practical side of the process…. She has been the regular sparring partner in the research phase of Zenk One’s projects for many years, but is now also an executive. “The style is very much Robin, only together we look at how to expand it,” she says. Moreover, that expansion is fueled by the home they built together; it is the primary inspiration behind the exhibit.
“We are just working on our home a lot and love to create all kinds of things ourselves, building and making things ourselves,” Robin explains about both their home and its furnishings. “Thrift stores, flea markets, or just on the street-we’ve always loved looking for special things to give new life to.” Anne adds: “Actually, we find it bizarre that so much is thrown away, while there is still so much beauty in it. With a little creativity, you can turn that into something really cool.”
“We add an extra layer to that in this exhibition by applying the Zenk One style to it. And also what is depicted is visually inspired again by objects, shapes and patterns from their interiors. We want to make the new objects/works come home in a way, give them a new base,” the artist concludes. “And the playing field of how we do that, we want to keep it as broad as possible.”

Visit the exposition
Every Thursday you are welcome from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. during “Walk-in Thursday,” so you can come see the works without an appointment. Prefer to drop by at another time? Then make an appointment via the website.
This interview was written by cultural journalist Jaap van der Doelen and the photos were taken by Rosa Meininger.