Step inside an abandoned chapel and, for a few heart-stopping seconds, a luminous cloud floats just above the pews, drifting like a dream you could almost reach out and touch. This impossible sight is not computer trickery; it is Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde’s living sculpture, summoned through precise control of temperature, humidity, and light. Blink once and the cloud dissolves, yet the sense of wonder lingers, urging you to discover how he turns the atmosphere itself into art.
Smilde was born in 1978 in Groningen and studied fine art at Minerva Academy before taking an MA at the Frank Mohr Institute. He now lives and works in Amsterdam, showing internationally while continuing to chase the perfect indoor cloud.
The first Nimbus photograph appeared in 2010 at Probe gallery in Arnhem, setting a course that would see Time list the project among its best inventions of 2012. Over the past decade the series has drifted through castles, coal mines, and art fairs, enlarging its cultural footprint without abandoning its fleeting nature.
Each cloud is engineered rather than imagined. Smilde cools the room, saturates the air with a fine mist, then releases a burst of theatrical smoke that binds to the moisture and swells into a dense six-foot cloud. Conditions must be cold, damp, and totally still; even the subtlest draft can shred the form in seconds. The artist often spends days calibrating a space and may produce a hundred trial clouds to capture one successful frame.
Recent installations show how the project keeps evolving. In October 2023 he created Nimbus Acts Room 2023 inside the richly ornamented library of the Dutch Parliament’s Binnenhof complex, a location normally off limits to such experiments. The photograph now tours as part of the exhibition “MC’s Mindgames,” pairing nineteenth-century architecture with a ten-second apparition.
Smilde sees these clouds as “transitory moments of presence,” inviting viewers to project their own meanings onto a shape that is both sculptural object and symbol of impermanence. Far from “playing God,” he argues that the work exposes human vulnerability by making a weather event that is destined to fail almost as soon as it forms.
The images have been commissioned by fashion houses and tech firms alike; a 2013 collaboration for Harper’s Bazaar placed his cloud beside Karl Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace, and Alber Elbaz, underlining its crossover appeal. Collectors prize the photographs, yet Smilde insists the essence of the work resides in the momentary sculpture itself rather than its documentation.
Although best known for Nimbus, Smilde’s practice ranges further. Earlier projects dispersed antiseptic scent through hospital corridors, while the series Unflattened projected inverted rainbows onto bleak landscapes, continuing his fascination with trapping elusive natural phenomena indoors.
Solo shows such as “Vertical Visibility” at Ronchini Gallery, London (2025) reveal how the artist keeps stretching the idea toward new materials and scales. Yet the core tension remains unchanged: a solid building shelters a form that should belong to the sky, and for a breath-long interval the ordinary laws of place and time feel negotiable.
Smilde’s clouds succeed because they do not last. Each photograph fixes an impossible event, reminding us that even familiar shapes can seem miraculous when encountered out of context. In a world of permanent digital images, his work proposes that the most powerful experiences may be the ones that vanish.
Looking for access to blue chip works?
We offer end‑to‑end expertise - acquisitions, legacy planning, and collection development - so every artwork adds cultural depth and financial strength. Let's shape your collecting future.Book your consultation now!
