Daniël van Nes

tekenen , Licht , installatie , cross-over , Audiovisueel

I create immersive art experiences blending digital innovation with traditional mediums, exploring themes of humanity, identity, and the blurred lines between reality and technology. I journey into a universe called SellFable, absorbing its essence, and invite the public to join me in exploring this realm. SellFable operates as an independent art practice, continuing to expand as a living, evolving universe supported by a community of patrons through Patreon, as well as through direct sales and select public presentations - enabling ongoing experimentation and a direct, personal connection with audiences. Works have been featured at Tetem (Enschede), Urban Nation (Berlin), STRAAT Museum (Amsterdam), Street Art Museum (St. Petersburg), and beyond.

**Opening a SellFable Portal with Drawing & Sound** - In September 2025, I partnered with guitarist Florian Magnus Maier to bring the SellFable Universe to life at Cross Comix Festival. As the SellFable Archivist, I created a 5 x 1.5-meter drawing that acted as a live portal, blending visual art and experimental sound. My charcoal connected to a microphone, and processed in real-time via Ableton, merged with Florian’s guitar to form an immersive, interactive experience for passersby. The artwork featured a gateway to the SellFable world, with elements like a hexadecimal code poem for deeper engagement. The project fused storytelling, sound, and audience participation, leaving a lasting impression of art’s power to transport and transform.

**Fragile Things** - "Fragile Things" is a contemporary art series by Dutch artist Daniel van Nes (SellFable), featuring three hand-engraved relics - Doubt, Unease, and Longing - that serve as sanctuaries for vulnerable human emotions. Combining classical engraving with modern plexiglass and LED lighting, these unique artworks resemble vaults, bunkers, or dioramas, symbolizing protected spaces for delicate feelings. Created in response to today’s fractured world - marked by political upheaval, societal divisions, and the rise of AI - the series explores what remains of our humanity. In the dystopian SellFable universe, where emotions are often erased, these illuminated relics preserve the essence of human experience. Van Nes describes them as sacred artifacts, offering viewers a moment of introspection and a reminder of the emotions that define us. The limited-edition series blends art with urgent social commentary, inviting reflection on humanity in an era of data and division.

**The Seeker's Refuge** - In this digital animation, I act as both creator and observer - like The Archivist in the SellFable universe - exploring my own ambivalence and the tension between worlds. I crafted the digital drawings, animation, and music, delving into themes of isolation and the allure of an alternate reality. The visual distortion in the animation was generated live, with effects responding to my Ableton-composed soundscape. The final render captures a SellFablean creature in a lonely tower, surrounded by digital chaos, blurring the lines between the physical and code as it searches for meaning and connection. The piece invites viewers to interpret their own reflections within the digital abyss.

**Supplication** - “Supplication” is a mesmerizing collaboration between artist Daniël van Nes, known as SellFable, and UK composer Jo Quail. Fusing Quail’s haunting music and SellFable’s breathtaking animated drawings, a realm enfolds where music and visual expression seamlessly blend. The animation premiered on 11 May 2024 at Dunk! Festival in Gent, Featuring singer Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari and the Wilmink Project Orchestra, conducted by Jos Pijnappel.

**Excavation** - Excavation was an urban art exhibition where the public was challenged to participate in the ‘Excavation‘ of hidden artworks in the streets of Rotterdam. Using clues shared by the SellFable Archivist on social media, art lovers and collectors were be able to find exclusive artworks and take them home. Besides bringing the SellFable universe to a broad audience, Excavation also enabled anyone to own a real work of art from SellFable,

**Carbon Console** - Interactive mixed media installation (2020) Carbon Console is a SellFable Machine Relic. An immersive, multidisciplinary art installation, emanating light and sound. It’s a portal that will carry the visitor away like an ancient sailing ship, towards unknown shores: anywhere but here. Whether it is experienced as a portal, a chapel, a mausoleum, a refuge, or something altogether different, is up to the visitor. Its true purpose is open to everyone’s own interpretation and imagination. The structure has elements of machinery, ropes, masts, sails and a banner, bring to mind old sailing ships, a small factory, and perhaps a teleporting device. Something from a parallel universe. Images of robot guardians on the sides, are cut out of the material and glow with the rhythm of the soundscapes. They seem to keep watch, or perhaps they welcome the visitor. Once inside, the room captivates and immerses the visitor with ever changing soundscapes and lights. As if the machine comes to life, and does what it was meant to do: transport the visitor to that other universe: SellFable.

**VOLT** - ‘Volt’ is an ode to electricity and imagination, a portal to the parallel electric SellFable universe. The sculpture lovingly wraps weathering steel around a TenneT TSO oil pressure unit.

**The SellFable Passport** - The SellFable Passport is a small booklet with illustrations, text and pages with room for visa stamps. The passport is exclusively available to SellFable Patrons, people that support SellFable via the Patreon platform. The Passport officially identifies its owner as a "SellFablean". It is signed and numbered by the SellFable Archivist / the artist. At the end of every full year of support receive an official "visa stamp” , in the form of an original limited edition, engraving print. The idea behind the passport and patronage is that people can collect original art for a modest amount of money, while structurally supporting me as an artist, and become part of the SellFable narrative. More information can be found on www.sellfable.com/portfolio/the-sellfable-passport

**Sticks & Stones** - Mixed media installation, size 10x3m. (2012)

**Valu** - Drawing: white pencil on black paper. “The mind is a mechanism connected to the shell. Programming starts from birth. Delicate wiring patterns and viral input build a functional citizen.” Size: 29,7x42cm

**Detachment** - Drawing: white pencil on black paper. A detached ‘mind’ is free floating above the world. A SellFable Wirehead in the clouds. Maybe it’s about to embark on a journey into the unknown. Maybe it’s lost and trying to find meaning in its existence. Or maybe one of a million other optional states in this or other realities, its antenna ready to receive any signal. Radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors. Year: 2020 Size: 50 x 70cm

**SellFable System Bug Relic Box** - A light box keeping a precious System Bug safe. Vital to the SellFable universe, not unlike bees in our world. The plexiglas engraving transposes copper and wood engraving to modern material, resulting in ‘Illuminated Engraving’. The result of this handcrafted work can only be seen by use of light. Materials: Wood, Plexiglas, LED lights Size: 23x19x40cm

Residentie Cross Comix Festival

Datum: 12-09-2025 t/m 12-09-2025

Locatie: Centraal Station Rotterdam

In samenwerking met: Florian Magnus Maier

SellFable Portaal (2025): Met gitarist Florian Magnus Maier maakte ik op Cross Comix Festival een 5x1,5m houtskooltekening, een portaal naar het SellFable Universum. Het geluid van mijn tekenmateriaal, met een microfoon live gekoppeld aan Ableton, smolt samen met zijn gitaar tot een interactieve, meeslepende ervaring. Het kunstwerk, met een hexadecimaal codegedicht, verenigde beeld, geluid en verhaal, en toonde hoe kunst vervoert en transformeert. Een innovatieve mix die indruk maakte.

https://www.sellfable.com/portfolio/a-sellfable-portal-at-cross-comix/

Circuit Circus

Datum: 01-03-2020 t/m 01-05-2016

Locatie: TETEM

In samenwerking met: Tetem, Friso van Wijck

Circuit Circus ”is an immersive experience at TETEM (Enschede), that invites visitors into physical and virtual representations of the SellFable universe, with performances, charcoal renderings, light sculptures and other traditional work. Soundscapes by composer and percussionist Friso van Wijck

https://tetem.nl/in-de-media/circuit-circus-op-hi-fructose/

FRESH A.I.R. Residency Urban Nation

Datum: 01-09-2018 t/m 30-09-2018

Locatie: Urban Nation, Museum for Urban Contemporary Art

In samenwerking met: Urban Nation, Museum for Urban Contemporary Art

Impression of the SellFable residency at Urban Nation, Museum for Urban Contemporary Art, Berlin 2018: The Archivist at work. New developments and research into materials and spacial design. Creating an immersive installation with light, sound, paintings, woodcuts and sculptures. The sounds that escaped from the SellFable universe during the residency can be found on Soundcloud.

https://sellfable.com/portfolio/urban-nation-residency/

DOMINANT REALITY

Datum: 15-05-2017 t/m 21-05-2017

Locatie: Urban Nation, Museum for Urban Contemporary Art

In samenwerking met: Urban Nation, Museum for Urban Contemporary Art

Installation with illuminated engravings and pained murals depicting the SellFable universe, also showcasing SellFable clothing and mask. Technique: acrylic paint murals, illuminated engravings and illuminated relic boxes, LED lights. Room size approx. 4,40 x 4,40 x 4 (h) meters.

https://sellfable.com/portfolio/dominant-reality/

NOTHING PERSONAL

Datum: 01-05-2017 t/m 31-05-2017

Locatie: Street Art Museum (S.A.M.)

In samenwerking met: Street Art Museum (S.A.M.)

A 10x10x4 meter immersive painted and sculptural installation at Street Art Museum, Saint Petersburg.
The leading motif of the work is the phenomenon of revolution. A mob of angry creatures threatens to conquer the peaceful floating island of mother nature. While protecting her child, she evolves into something else. Seeds of life find their way and float around the room, guided by the lighthouse lamp sculpture in the middle.

https://sellfable.com/portfolio/nothing-personal/

VOLT

Datum: 01-10-2014 t/m 07-07-2015

Locatie: Rotterdam Noord

In samenwerking met: TenneT, Gemeente Rotterdam

'Volt' is an ode to electricity and imagination, a portal to the parallel electric SellFable universe. It has almost become impossible to imagine life without electricity. 'Volt' lovingly wraps corten steel around a TenneT TSO oil pressure unit. The weathering steel provides a durable protection of the portal. The warm color of the rusted steel, the poetic appearance of the artwork and use of LED light contribute to a feeling of safety and a positive vibe in this Rotterdam neighborhood.

https://sellfable.com/portfolio/volt/

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