... with Arjen

In the new episode of WAS MIT KUNST, Johann König is in
conversation with Dutch artist Arjen, whose exhibition IDENTITIES
is currently on view at KÖNIG GALERIE. Arjen is a self-taught
artist who studied violin and became a professor at the
Conservatory of Utrecht. Simultaneously Arjen kept painting and
sketching while searching for his own visual language. He is drawn
to the work of earlier modern painters like Pablo Picasso and
Salvador Dalí, as well as the ethnographic sources that inspired
them. Arjen’s paintings are filled with surreal and often absurd
imagery, which depict a turbulent assortment of feelings, emotions,
and personalities. He searches for the fundamental principles
behind different styles, as a method of pictorial analysis to then
employ in his own works. In the podcast, König and Arjen talk about
the switch from music to art, sources of inspiration, and the
concept behind the exhibition IDENTITIES.