Ever since he picked the graffiti name Shoe in 1979, Niels Meulman has been carving out his own path towards the international art world. Being a graffiti pioneer from Am-sterdam, he worked with American counterparts such as Dondi White, Rammellzee and Keith Haring in the 1980s.

He made the transition from the streets to fine art with a unique fusion of calligraphy and graffiti, which he named Calligraffiti. This soon became a worldwide phenomenon and now plays a significant role within Urban Contemporary Art. It also sparked the catchphrase 'A word is an image, writing is painting'.

In recent years Niels Shoe Meulman moved towards a style he calls Abstract Vandalism. Influenced by the great painters of Abstract Expressionism, his work has been shown in count-less exhibitions all over the world and is included in the permanent collections of museums and private collections.