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Martin Paaskesen (b. 1987, Aarhus, Denmark), lives and work in Copenhagen, Denmark. Within his artistic journey, Martin delves deep into the realms of expressionistic and storytelling painting. His creative process is guided by a profound sense of intuition and spontaneity, stemming from an inner drive to venture into a visual realm that delicately teeters on the edge between representation and abstraction. While the elements of representation always find their place in his artworks, the abstraction—defined by shapes, lines, and surfaces—holds an equally vital role. Everything in his art forms an intricate tapestry of interconnectedness, where boundaries blur and layers intertwine.
Hi Martin! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! First question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you in Copenhagen?
It’s my pleasure! My every day is relatively routine. I have two sons, 3 and 7, so I get up early, and after they are dropped off at kindergarten and school, I go to the studio.
Depending on how much time I have, I love to stop by my local coffee dealer and sometimes have a chat with some of the regulars there. It’s a café just around the corner from my studio, so I have been coming there for years now. “Next Door”, it’s called.
I’m curious. Growing up in Aarhus, what kind of kid were you? What did you enjoy doing and how did you spend your time?
I think I was two different kids, growing up. As a young boy I was a bit nerdy. I loved to play roleplay with my friends, I drew a lot, I was shy, and liked to keep my room tidy.
But it shifted quite a lot in my early preteens. I had a lot of other kids in my life that were a bit older than me, like 3-4 years older, whom I was around, meaning that I was introduced to a lot of things you find interesting at the age of 14-15, already when I was 11-12, and I found it extremely intriguing. Scary, but intriguing.
That meant that I already started to “rebel” a bit from there. And growing up on the west side of Aarhus, this was an asset, as I became one of the kids that dared to push the limits somehow. That resulted in a lot of unpleasant stuff, but looking back it made me very curious, adventurous, and independent.
Alright, so when did you start to paint, and when did you start taking being an artist seriously?
I didn’t start to paint before I was in my mid 20’s. And it actually came to me a bit coincidentally, as at that point in my life I was in acting school. Pursuing that medium of expression. In my 3rd year I was going to do a self-written play, acting as an artist in this studio. It was a very stereotypical presentation of the ‘suffering artist’, but I found the myth intriguing.
To research the role, I went to visit an artist, Jacob Herskind, in his studio and stayed there for 3-4 days, and obviously I had to try to paint. Mostly because I wanted to get as close to the ‘feel’ of an artist in the play.
So, I painted, and that was lifechanging for me. It got me high on levels that I hadn’t tried before. Even though it is thrilling to stand on stage in front of an audience of hundreds, this was something else. I remember finishing a painting, and then sit for a whole night just starring at it. I couldn’t stop looking at it. I don’t know how good the painting was, but I think I couldn’t comprehend that I was the one who painted it.
I took it serious from that point. Not as a professional career, but that didn’t matter. It never occurred to me that this was a possibility. But I knew I had to paint. For myself.
So when I got home from the visit I bought materials, and every moment I had time off from school I painted, and when I finished school in 2016, I got myself a small corner I a larger studio and kept going from there.
Your style is pretty unique. The patches on the canvas, along with the muted matte colors, makes it easy to spot a Martin Paaskesen painting. How long has It taken you to develop that style? And what is it about that look that resonates with you?
One of the things that excites me working as an artist, is that it drives me forward. My adventurous mind is at work. I am in a constant development phase. It can be everything from tiny details to radical shifts. That goes for both approach, materials, imagery and so on.
About 1,5 years ago I invented the patch painting technique, and that somehow invited me to approach my work differently. With a more minimalistic and abstract notion, which I had been wanting to do for years. Here came the opportunity, and I could somehow accumulate the things I had learned about painting for the last 8 years.
The pink shark series is the result of the last 8 years of searching and research – it is a new state, and it makes me feel calm. I feel like I came home. Both emotionally but also rationally.
The various various animals, characters and motifs you pick as the protagonists of your paintings. What makes them worthy of gracing your canvas? What’s your thought process like?
All objects are worthy of gracing any painting. My approach towards choosing these, have been rather unconsidered. I Just felt like painting them. The thing is, that I do not necessarily see these animals, characters and motifs as what they immediately appear as.
I have almost always chosen one of these objects to have something concrete to work around. I approach my art with a very abstract idea. The object itself is not so significant in my process – it usually first becomes something more meaningful once the painting is finished.
I have always been a big fan of abstract paintings, but somehow it almost always comes out as figuration in my case. I don’t really know why.
With that in mind. A lot of your newer work feature a shark. What’s your inspiration behind that? And what is it about the shark that makes you want to document it?
I made a deliberate choice to work with the shark because it’s a recognizable, captivating and familiar creature.
From a very young age, we are introduced to it, as well as for example the lion, giraffe, elephant, turtle and so on. So we know it and have some sort of relation to it. At the same time it’s an icon vastly used in pop-culture, and it sparks fear, power, anxiety in us, but at the same time it’s a creature of great prejudice.
Many people are afraid of sharks, even though they are not close to us, and most people have never even seen a shark in real life, and definitely not been in a dangerous situation with one.
And statistically it’s not very dangerous. On a yearly basis the shark only kill 10 people on the planet. As a comparison hippos kill about 500, and dogs kill 13.000. So it becomes an object of extremely irrational fear. Which I think is very descriptive to how we conduct ourselves in society.
While we’re on the subject. Can you tell me about your use of symbolism?
I never consider symbolism when I work.
I chose the shark as an object because I wanted to work with something concrete, thus creating a dogma. This has resulted in a more liberated process for me, as I then can focus on the elements that I love when creating paintings, which is composition, omission, balance, materials, color pallet and so on.
When the object is given, I don’t have to think too much about choosing between all the ideas that constantly comes to my mind. And to have ideas coming in and out of my head, as cars arrive and leave a gas station on the Autobahn in July, is a gift and a curse.
How do you approach color?
When I started painting, I used all the colors I could get my hand on. Trying to fit in as many as possible. Down the line, that has been narrowed down to colors I just like together, creating a more specific palette. Not considered on a deeper level than what my eyes like.
When I painted the first shark, using very few colors, mostly pink, I suddenly fell in love with the simplicity of that. I painted quite a few paintings within this pallet.
With the shark series, I keep working with this palette, as it speaks to my great love of minimalism, and by only working with a few painted colors, suddenly the color of the canvas comes to its own, enhancing the patch technique, thus making that an equally important part of the artworks expression.
With that in mind. How you approach your work?
I approach my work with an abstract and minimalistic idea. I know it is not going to end up like that, but most of the energy I put into a painting comes from this.
I am a huge fan of minimalistic paintings. I think it is an extremely difficult genre, as I have seen many works which I don’t understand, but WHEN a minimalistic painting speaks to me, I think it can be the wildest experience.
The patch technique has forced me to consider the negative space a lot more. At the same time this has been my way of being able to fill out negative space with ”something”, and somehow create filling in the negative space, which actually is very contrapuntal.
It is somehow loaded negative space.
Can you walk me through your creative process. From beginning, to end result?
Not really. The creative process is not an A to B thing.
I think I am just always striving to be open to my inner system and try to listen to my gut feeling. Some days when I have spent many hours in the studio, I start to make shitty decisions, but that can be difficult to see in the situation. So, I try to use my experience to be honest with myself, like stopping for while and ask myself: ‘Am I at that point now, where I just make decisions to make decisions? Are my head straight?”. And if I’m not on the right page, I must stop for the day.
With that in mind, how do you deal with creative blocks?
How I deal with creative blocks is to try to not see it as creative blocks.
I try to see it as a period in every creative process that is inevitable. I have experienced that I usually get hit by this after the opening of a solo exhibition. But I usually refer to it as the ‘blues’ period, instead of a creative block. Just like that empty feeling you can have on a Sunday (and sometimes Monday too), after a good bender.
It’s a shitty feeling but non the less important to have, as I think it’s the part where the mind recalibrates. Personally I think one just have to take it easy, let go of painting for a while – that is alright – and then slowly start when it feels better. I do a lot of stuff which I have procrastinated, like seeing people, see exhibitions and so on.
What motivates you?
Obviously, a lot of things motivates me, but the main motivation – the core motivation – I think is to get that painters-high. The feeling that sometimes come when painting a painting or series. During that process or when it is finished. It’s a drug.
And when that hits, and everything goes up in unity, I feel bulletproof. It is so fulfilling on so many levels, especially because it is a very true feeling – you can’t force or cheat it into existence.
How would you describe a perfect day?
When that happens.
Alright so, you currently have a solo show, at Annika Nuttall Gallery, titled “Flower Garden”. What’s the story behind that title?
It comes from my fascination of Cy Twombly, and especially his floral paintings.
Twombly is one of the absolute greatest artists of all time, and the way he works with his objects and the compositions is making me want to bathe in the works.
I don’t know very much about Twombly’s practice actually, I have just always been so fascinated with his artistic language and the way he handles his objects, I feel a large kinship to it. Somehow the sharks in ‘Flower Garden’ coupe be flowers as well.
Any future projects coming up?
Yes I do, but I will keep it to what’s in the calendar, and that is a group show at NBB Gallery in Berlin in the spring, which I am excited about, as I am a fan of the gallery and the artists they work with.
Alright Martin. I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
True Detective, season 1. Even though it’s not a movie it earns it’s place here.
To me, this is one of the best things ever made for the screen, it’s almost perfect. Everything from the screenplay, the environment, the melancholia, the photography, to the ultimate masterclass in great acting. I think it’s as close to 100%, as I have ever seen.
The second is. What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
I always listen to music in my studio, but lately, and especially while I worked on my current solo, two song have been repeated many times: Nik Wel – Get Up! and Jolene by Dolly Parton.
