Josua Kerkis (1998) Helsinki

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As an abstract painter I believe that feeling is the only thing that I can create. The human capacity to reflect every painted surface, gesture and color is something I strongly rely on. 

 

For the past two years, I have been interested in artist Dan Flavin's idea of ​​minimal maximalism and seriality, as well as the Russian avant-garde. The unfinished biography of Kazimir Malevich opened me up to the world behind his work and has inspired me to believe in abstract painting today. Also texts from Rainer Maria Rilke, Georges Bataille and Julia Kristeva have been important for me to truly trust in the artwork itself as an entity. 

 

My work is strongly based on the basic methods of painting and how they create meaning. I believe in paint itself without an image and a visible theme. I myself have experienced transcendentalism and self-reflection while standing in front of great abstract paintings. I aim for an unexhausted and slowly unfolding painting, where the experience of seeing itself is meaningful. My painting does not represent anything, as it is not a substitution of an idea or a thing. It is its own entity that only reveals itself through empathy.