Meet The Founders
We are Nicola E. Petek and Nora Vogel, the two founders of FRIDAY BIRD. We met while studying art history in Freiburg im Breisgau. We then moved to Berlin to study for a Master's degree and initially went our own ways professionally. Nicola established herself as a freelance curator, collection consultant and writer, working with galleries, institutions and artists in England, China, the US and beyond. Nora worked as a freelance editor and led international projects and campaigns as a communications manager at the BMW Foundation.
In 2024, we brought those two paths back together and founded FRIDAY BIRD. The name is a combination of our surnames: ‘Petek' in Slovenian means ‘Friday,’ and ‘Vogel’ is German for ‘Bird.’
What We Look For
We are drawn to artists with a distinctive visual language and a strong connection to their medium. Our program spans different generations and approaches, but the works share a commitment to quality and a resistance to the obvious. We are particularly interested in artists who engage with printmaking and paper-based media in ways that are both considered and unexpected. Some work within traditional techniques, others push them into new territory.
What we look for above all are works that reward sustained attention: pieces that continue to reveal something new long after the first encounter.
Why Printmaking and Works on Paper?
Printmaking occupies a particular place within contemporary art that is easy to underestimate. Unlike posters or reproductions, original prints are works conceived specifically for the print medium. Whether made through etching, woodcut, lithography or other techniques, each impression results from a process that is as much about material thinking as it is about image-making. Many of the prints we present are produced in collaboration with specialist workshops — particularly Keystone Editions in Berlin, one of the most respected printmaking studios in the country, if not the world.
They offer a window into an artist's thinking and process while standing fully on their own as finished works.
Alongside printmaking, we are equally drawn to works on paper more broadly. Drawings, watercolors, ink works and mixed-media pieces often have a directness and intimacy that is hard to find elsewhere.
Because prints are produced in limited editions, they also offer an accessible entry point into collecting original art. In many cases they are an opportunity to acquire works by artists whose paintings or unique pieces are difficult to reach.