Evgen Čopi Gorišek
“I leave it up to the viewer to interpret the smile; the “realness” and the “fakeness” of it.”
Interview by Charlie Mills
Could you tell us a bit about yourselves and your background? Where did you study?
I was born in 1994 in Koper, a coastal town in Slovenia. I grew up on the seaside and with 19, after finishing a provincial art gymnasium I moved to Ljubljana, the capital, where I took up sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
There is a tension in your work between freedom and restriction. The former of which manifests through a youthful lens, one that is optimistic and aspirational but also naive in character. Is your own faux naïf style influenced by the politics of youth, especially how this plays out online in new generations?
Absolutely. I get most of my inspiration and ideas from social media platforms and other internet websites and magazines. I see my work from two different angles; on the one hand it is a critique of the current situation we are living in. This is why I like to include humour. For example my bodybuilder paintings; I don’t understand at all why someone would spend their everyday in a gym just to get so many muscles that ultimately they can be showcased on Instagram. To me this is totally bizarre. But from the other angle I totally respect and admire their hard work, persistence and all that time invested into a single purpose, in the end resulting in a display of their muscular bodies. So all of these motifs that I paint represent the “ideal” life that much of the youth fantasises about or aspires to. At the same time I like to question whether this is truly an ideal; a good life that we see on social media, tv and magazines?
A central motif to your work is the gormless grin. There is a clear contrast between glamor and triumph and this insipid melancholy. In some cases, it appears as though your characters are almost content with diminished happiness, as if they have knowingly resigned to their fate. What is the emotional tension you hope to reveal with this motif, and do you think it is one of complicity as much as subjection?
This is one of the things that I like to leave up to the audience to decide. It can definitely be an honest smile which for me is one of the most important attitudes towards life; an approach to anything I want to do in my lifetime. Always be positive and smile. It sounds so simple, but I think it’s the best and the only way to survive. But those smiles on my characters can also be “fake” smiles. Those are like masks concealing the real feelings and grimaces. I’ve experienced that sometimes in my life; people smiling at me while thinking about something completely different, perhaps they were actually sad or angry, or simply didn’t want to show a feeling so they’d smile. I even painted characters smiling and crying at the same time and people would ask me why those people were smiling if they were sad? Perhaps they are crying because something nice has happened, perhaps they are tears of joy, of happiness. This is why I leave it up to the viewer to interpret the smile; the “realness” and the “fakeness” of it.
Exit, Duve Berlin, 2021
Exit, Duve Berlin, 2021
You originally studied Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Art in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. What influences led you to pursue painting as a primary medium, especially the unorthodox combination of techniques such as airbrush, spray paint, and oil stick?
I was painting much before I got interested in sculpture. I decided to study sculpture because I wanted to acquire skills that I couldn’t have learned by myself. I wanted to work with materials that were new to me, learn how to make molds and in general, expand my work into 3D space. I also thought it would help me improve my painting. I studied sculpture for three years and I dropped out two semesters before finishing the studies. I just wasn’t satisfied with the studies. I left and continued my painting practice at my studio for another two years, while doing other jobs on the side. This was also the time when I decided to move to Berlin. So when I saved up enough money I moved here. At that time I was still using solely acrylics and spray paint. While in Berlin I first discovered oil stick and fell in love with the medium. The same happened with airbrush. I got interested in airbrush after seeing Austin Lee’s paintings so I decided to buy one. I was already using spray paint so I got used to it quite fast. I was really happy about it because it allowed me to do tiny details that I couldn’t do with spray paint before. I needed around six months to really get the feeling for it and now I can say I’m really having fun with airbrush, it allows me to do details and other special effects that I wasn’t able to do before. And my painting approach now is completely different from the one before I had moved to Berlin. I’m really glad about that change in my life that also changed my way of painting.
Your most recent solo show EXIT runs from 13 March — 9 April at Duve, Berlin. The paintings on show display an assortment of characters in different activities — sporty, summery and fashionable, people ‘Living Their Best Life’. What brings together each of these characters and how does their social landscape — and what they are trying to "exit" — differ from previous bodies of work?
"Exit" is just the right word or expression for how we’re going out from that cold, grey and rainy period, so exiting into the “good life,” the warm and sunny days together with friends and family. The works shown at the Duve Gallery were all painted during this winter between November 2020 and February 2021. This was also the time when everything was closed down again while during those months Berlin becomes grey, cold and rainy. So my life was happening between being at home and painting at the studio. It felt a bit depressing since I wasn’t seeing many friends, nothing was happening in regard to exhibition openings, concerts, well in general, spending time outside was diminished down to a minimum. So I started to think about the things that I really miss and about the good things that will come again as soon as winter ends. I definitely dreamt about being at the seaside or at the pool with friends enjoying warm sunny weather, doing outdoor sports or just dressing nicely and going out for a date or dinner with family or friends. All those good things that I felt I’m really far from, stuck in the studio for 3 months without seeing much of sun. “Exit” is just the right word or expression for going out from the cold, grey and rainy period, in a sense exiting into the “good life”.
Exit, Duve Berlin, 2021
Exit, Duve Berlin, 2021
You are currently showing as part of The Artist Is Online, a group show organised by König Galerie, again in Berlin. The show is viewable in three ways: in person, through a digital avatar in the gallery’s virtual viewing room, and on Decentraland, a virtual world based on the blockchain where artworks can be purchased as NFTs. How do you think the new rise in virtual/blockchain technologies will affect the consumption of your art?
I don’t really know how it will affect the consumption of my art. With the whole digital revolution I definitely think it will develop further quite rapidly, accelerated in the time of the pandemic with travel bans and bigger public event shut-downs, the digital way of showing and selling art seems like an inevitable new direction for artists, galleries and collectors. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of the digital technology world but I’m definitely not against it, so I try to keep myself updated with it. At the moment I’m learning about the NFTs. But for now my main focus definitely remains (physical) painting.
Tell us a bit about how you spend your day / studio routine? What is your studio like?
I spend my days at the studio from Monday to Saturday. I usually wake up between 8 and 9:30 am. I spend the mornings at home eating breakfast, watching NBA and playing chess. I come to the studio around 1 pm and I work there until 9 or 10 pm. I moved into my new studio in the centre of Kreuzberg this August. My studio routine is pretty simple: the first thing I do when I come in is play some music and then I pretty much start painting immediately. In between painting I spend some time reading magazines that I archive in the studio and scroll through Instagram to keep up with all the shows that are happening around the world. When it’s warmer and the weather is nice I definitely like to go out to grab some good food which you can find at almost every corner of the district. My girlfriend moved to Berlin in November, so she helps me a lot as an assistant in the studio but also keeps me company all the time so I’m not alone which is great. And this is pretty much how my studio life looks like.
Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?
Yes, I do. It’s not officially announced yet, but later this year I’ll be releasing my first ever limited edition sculpture and my first ever clothing collection collaboration which I’m super excited about.
All images are courtesy of the artist and Duve Berlin
Date of publication: 20/05/21
