Evgen Copi Gorisek (b.1994) is an emerging painter of contemporary faux naïf. His paintings deal with figurative forms of expression rendered in the attributes of graffiti and arranged in a child-like pattern. The colour-intensive compositions create a close association with ordinary topics and mass culture. Characters that are smeared with blurred facial features are his most frequent and recognisable representations. The viewer can barely identify their masculine or feminine features or it seems rather pointless to examine the matter of their agender identities. These genderless depictions- as well as other more random ones like a Ferrari diver, a tiger, a basketball player, pussy cats, or bodybuilders- synthesise a compilation of his typical motifs. As he highlights himself, his inspiration comes from “random things that he watches on his phone or just random absurd situation that he gets into while he’s walking around the city. Many times everyday city life situations combined with current feelings”.
This imagery of human figures and objects, which tends to look 3D on the painting’s surface, flirts with more ordinary conditions that have been re-examined by this young artist. Such subjects are creatively presented based on the artist’s underlying intimate conceptions, testifying a joyful airbrushed interplay with Gorisek’s personal desires and preferences. Strikingly made with spray paint and washes of oil sticks or acrylics, Gorisek’s body of work manages to radiate frisky contradictions and disparate content. The artist’s spray techniques bring up further possibilities of light-hearted occurrences that offer a funny atmosphere and lively effect on the final result.
Blending various motifs, the Berlin-based painter starts to experiment images of ambiguity and spontaneity in his visuals through a wide spectrum of vivid colours. His compositions aesthetically balance contradictory approaches creating amusing but also absurd works for the viewers. On one hand, his depictions incorporate familiarity and attachment converting a more comprehensive iconography based on still life paintings which simply showcase tigers, rainbows, cars and motor bikes. On the other hand, strangeness co exits in his works as his characteristically enigmatic humanoid faces with the seemingly smearing and amiable grins and other ambiguous grimaces signify his imagery too. At this point, pop culture and personal memories artistically merge on the surface of his canvases. Although pop attributes radiates perky recollections derived from the artist’s life, other deeper concerns provide either a relaxed atmosphere or more ambivalent and vague painting arrangements. These works, which manage to capture real facts or surreal stories from his daily life, finally challenge or even trigger the artist’s creative skills on canvas.
Words: Yannis Kostarias
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2021 (Forthcoming) Padre Gallery, New York, USA
2020 “Only loners left alive” Plan X Art Gallery, Milan, Italy
Group Exhibitions
2020 “My own Universe” PADRE Gallery, New York, USA.
2020 “Don’t Give a Damns” Marian Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2020 “System Failure” Plastic Murs, Valencia, Spain
2020 “Cut,Copy,Paste” Plan X Art Gallery, Milan, Italy