Jens Nielsen trained as a cabinetmaker at Kjorsbjerg Møbelsnedkeri in Middelfart from 1959-62 and participated in a student exhibition organized by the Copenhagen cabinetmakers’ guild at the Museum of Applied Arts in Copenhagen. In 1962 Nielsen studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen from where he graduated two years later, when he also won the first prize in a furniture design competition sponsored by Finérkompagniet af 1957 (eng. Plywood Company of 1957) for the design of the Laminex folding chair. The chair was produced in a modified version by Norwegian Westnofa from 1977.
From 1964-65 Nielsen exhibited designs at the Illums Bolighus store. Nielsen was employed by the architect Aage Herman Olsen in 1964, where he stayed until 1966. From the mid 1960’s Nielsen designed furniture for Danish manufacture such as Georg Petersen Møbelfabrik, Falster Form and Billund Stolefabrik.
In 1965 Nielsen was one of the seven young Danish designers featured in the show 7 Designere ’65 at the Eriksholm Castle in Humlebaek and in the following year in the exhibition Fifty Years of Sitting at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
For almost thirty years, Nielsen worked for the architect Jens Malling Pedersen, but left in 1994 to continue at C.F. Møller Architects until 2000. In 2009 Nielsen showed a lounge chair at the Biennale for Craft and Design at the Trapholt Museum of Modern Art and Design in Kolding.
