Niklas Goldbach, born in Witten, Germany, lives and works in Berlin.
After studying Sociology at Bielefeld University and “Photography and Video” at the Unversity of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, he was awarded with the “Meisterschüler” degree at the University of the Arts Berlin in 2006. In 2005 he received the Fulbright Grant New York and majored in the MFA program of Hunter College, New York City.

In his videos and photographies Goldbach is involved in the relation between architecture and necropolitics within modernist traditions and postmodern cities. Established between reality and fiction, Goldbach’s works use architectural concepts and elements to create ambiguous perceptions of man-made environments. He appropriates urban environments as stages to examine the relationship between subjectivity and hierarchical societal structures through the lens of a globally expanding interconnectivity of these sites.

In his earlier video works, his often duplicated protagonists have colonized epic stages of modern architectural complexes, postmodern urban environments or alleged paradises defying civilisation, all finding their commonality as places oscillating between utopia and dystopia.

Niklas Goldbach received several scholarships (among others Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn 2010, Arbeitsstipendium Bildende Kunst des Berliner Senats 2013, Projektförderung des Berliner Senats 2014, Dresdener Stipendium für Fotografie 2016, Villa Aurora Los Angeles 2017, Recherchestipendium des Berliner Senats 2021, NEUSTART Projektförderung 2021, NEUSTART Kultur Stipendium 2022) and has presented his works in numerous solo shows, group exhibitions, and festivals in venues such as the Berlinale, Transmediale, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, EMAF Osnabrück, Kasseler Dokfilmfest, AFFR Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, Mori-Art Museum Tokyo, Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Taichung, Total Museum for Contemporary Art Seoul, Museo Reina Sofia Madrid, PAN Palazzo delle Arti di Napoli, Cornerhouse Manchester, Barbican Arts Center London, Watermans Art Center London, Building Bridges Art Exchange Los Angeles, Centre Pompidou Paris, Palais de Tokyo Paris, Museum Ludwig Köln, Berlinische Galerie, Kunsthaus Dresden, Museum Technische Sammlungen Dresden, Galerie im Taxispalais Innsbruck, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Kunsthaus Wien,
Wien Museum MUSA, Kunstmuseum Mülheim, ZKM Karlsruhe, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein n.b.k, HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, FotoFest Houston Biennial 2016, Fotobiennalen 2018 Denmark, Bergen Assembly 2019, Media Art Biennale Wroclaw 2021, documenta 14, Biennale für Freiburg 2021 and others.
2023 he is Kunstpreisträger der Stadt Nordhorn.

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