I READ IN ONE OF YOUR INTERVIEWS THAT WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER YOU DISCOVERED PABLO PICASSO’S WORK. HOW DID YOUR JOURNEY AS ARTIST START?
I grew up in a traveling fair. In the winter we used to renovate the fair rides, and I also helped my grandfather and my father painting facades and panels. I learned how to use a paint brush and to mix colors in that way, but I didn’t think of any of this as art. In fact, I did not think about art at all. Yet, it started there, and in my early teens I came across a book about Picasso, that changed everything.


BECAUSE OF YOUR MODERNISM-INSPIRED LANGUAGE, YOU ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE MASTER OF CUBISM, PICASSO. AND YOU QUOTE ALSO AMEDEO MODIGLIANI AS A REFERENCE FOR YOUR ACTIVITY. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TODAY TO HOMAGE THE PAST, BUT AT THE SAME TIME TO GROW YOUR OWN PATH AS AN ARTIST, FINDING YOUR ARTISTIC AUTONOMY? OUR NEW ISSUE’S THEME IS “AUTONOMY”, AND I’D LIKE YOU TO DESCRIBE THIS ASPECT FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ARTISTIC CAREER.
French philosopher Michel Foucault once stated that, “we are living and breathing discourses.” In other words, reality is a cultural construction, and our sense of the world is constructed through language and culture. This almost questions the whole idea of autonomy. However, we can’t not consider human agency, and we just have to be aware that we are standing on the shoulders of others, and that any utterance, in my case any visual articulation, is a dialogue with voices from the past.

My work refers to various art historical periods: the Middle Ages’ church murals, Renaissance and Baroque portraiture, early Modernism, particularly Cubism. I am in a dialogue with voices from the past, but I am also a part of the present. Speaking about Cubism for instance, it broke with and questioned representational painting, but it was more than a formalist exercise. They were part of the industrial revolution, new technologies had arisen, motion pictures had become a reality, and all these factors affected their approach in creating images and understanding the world. 

For certain aspects I consider my work similar to Cubism, an alternative physical version of Photoshop, digital, yet very handmade at the same time. Every element in my paintings could theoretically be moved around on the surface if an alternative physical version of Photoshop existed. 


BETWEEN FIGURATIVE AND ABSTRACT, YOU PURSUE A TIMELESS ART. CAN YOU DESCRIBE TO US YOUR CLASSIC AND SIMPLE STYLE?
Less is more, the unnecessary is left out. Any figurative or abstract work is made of simple geometrical elements and fields of color. I keep it simple. I also try to only include elements that are timeless, and avoid the inclusion of contemporary items, like a smartphone for example.

YOUR COLOR PALETTE IS MINIMALIST, NOT NATURALISTIC, SIMPLE AND CALM IN NUANCES. OFTEN THE COLOR PLANES ENTIRELY CREATE THE COMPOSITION. WHAT DRIVES YOUR CHOICE OF COLORS? DO YOU CONSTRUCT A PRELIMINARY GEOMETRY AND SKETCH, OR DO YOU BUILD FIGURES WITH COLORS?
I mix all colors, and never paint directly from the paint tube. I like harmony, but also the opposite. Therefore, a few colors could seem misplaced, they create a stir and I like that. I am actually colorblind, so maybe people see it in a completely different way!


WHILE DEPICTING POWERFUL HUMAN PORTRAITS OR STILL-LIFE MOTIFS, YOU INSERT PIECES OF INTERIORS BEHIND THE MAIN SUBJECTS. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SPACE IN CONSTRUCTION? AND HOW DOES YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS FLOW?
The interior and architectural elements often affect the atmosphere of the painting and add spatial depth. But I am more interested in the formalist aspects. The human figure and the space become a part of an abstraction where composition and color are just as important as the subject. In fact, sometimes I try to work against the spatial depth and make it flat and spatial at the same time. The human figure always comes first, and the other elements are created in a formalist dialogue with the figure.


YOUR HUMAN FIGURES ARE HIGHLY RECOGNIZABLE, YOU REPEAT THEM OBSESSIVELY, AND WE LEARNED TO KNOW THEM. STRONGLY GOVERNED BY GEOMETRIES, THEY LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE VIEWER WITH ERECT POSTURES, CATCHING HIS ATTENTION BUT AT THE SAME TIME KEEPING A DISTANCE AND COOLING THE EXPERIENCE. THEY HAVE AN ANDROGYNOUS EXPRESSION; THEY GO BEYOND GENDERS’ DEFINITION. IT SEEMS THEY HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL BUT THEY DON’T OPEN A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL. WHAT KIND OF HUMANITY DO YOU WANT TO REPRESENT?
I used to say that my human figures come from the future but also lived in the past. For me, they represent something universally human, yet it is difficult to indicate exactly what. They keep a distance, and they might seem almost numb, but underneath the surface something is going on, there is a fire.

I view human identity as a cultural construction. Notions of gender, sexuality etc. change all the time, but my figures could represent something that is universally human. 


IN THE COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION FROM EUROPE, WITH LOVE (2019), YOU DEFENDED A SPECIFIC TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO PAINTING, NOT SCREAMED IN SOCIAL NETWORK BUT STUDIO-BASED. CAN YOU EXPLAIN TO US HOW YOU CONCEIVE THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST NOWADAYS?
That is a big question. As an artist you are a part of a cultural conversation, whether you are conscious of it or not. My approach to art making is studio based and focuses on tactility and physicality. We are surrounded by pictures and images all the time in the digital world, but I like to make works that have to be experienced live because of their physical presence. I want to engage mind and body.