HELLO JAKOB AND A WARM WELCOME TO THE 4BYSIX FAMILY. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WORK WITH US ON OUR CURRENT VEHICLES FOR CHANGE INITIATIVE AND FOR TALKING TO US ABOUT YOUR WORK.

TO BEGIN, I WOULD LIKE TO START WITH THE ORIGINS OF YOUR PRACTICE AND WONDERING IF THERE WAS A PARTICULAR EXPERIENCE, IDEA, OR MOMENT IN YOUR ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT THAT FIRST LED YOU TO DEPICT THE SHIFTING FIGURES WE SEE IN YOUR WORK TODAY?

There wasn’t a single moment that led me to these figures. It was more of a gradual shift in the way I approached painting.

I originally came from a graffiti background, where clear outlines and defined shapes play a central role. Over time, I became increasingly interested in forms that resist clear definition. I started to question the contour itself because it suggests that one thing ends exactly where another begins. But that’s rarely how I experience reality. I’m more interested in the areas where things overlap, influence one another, or remain unresolved.

Because of that, I don’t see my paintings primarily as depictions of figures. For me, they are closer to presentations of states. The shifting forms emerged from an interest in ambiguity and in what exists before things are separated into fixed categories.

HOW DO YOU APPROACH CONSTRUCTING COMPOSITION IN YOUR PAINTINGS, DO YOU BEGIN WITH A STRUCTURED PLAN, OR DOES THE COMPOSITION DEVELOP MORE INTUITIVELY AS LAYERS OF COLOR AND TEXTURE ACCUMULATE?

I rarely begin with a fixed composition. Most paintings start quite openly and often in a fairly abstract way. I look for structures, relationships, or fragments that seem worth pursuing. The composition develops through a process of adding, removing, painting over, and responding to what is already there. Even when I start with a specific idea, it often changes significantly during the process.

I would say I build paintings more from the bottom up than from the top down. I’m less interested in executing a predefined image than in discovering something that wasn’t entirely visible at the beginning.

MOVEMENT SEEMS TO EMERGE IN YOUR WORK THROUGH SHIFTS IN COLOUR, LAYERED SURFACES, AND FORMS THAT ARE NEVER QUITE FIXED. HOW DO YOU APPROACH CAPTURING MOVEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIVE FORMS IN PAINTING?

For me, movement is less about speed and more about the movement of meaning and identity. The movement in my work comes from those shifts rather than from the depiction of action. Even small changes can completely alter how a form is perceived.

YOUR NEW WORK, VENUS & AMOR, WAS MADE ON A PIECE OF 4BYSIX’S UNCONVENTIONAL CANVASES MADE FROM REPURPOSED LORRY TARPAULIN, CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE WORK AND THE KEY INSPIRATIONS? HOW DID YOU FIND WORKING ON THE LORRY TARPAULIN AS A CANVAS? 

After the first layers, a figure began to emerge that reminded me of Lucas Cranach’s Venus and Cupid. I used it as a point of reference while developing the work. The figures appear as shells that promise beauty, identity, or protection but can’t fully maintain that promise. Working on the tarpaulin supported that idea. The material allowed me to remove paint and reveal earlier layers or even the surface itself, making the act of covering and uncovering part of the image.

YOU HAVE DESCRIBED YOUR INTEREST IN WHAT LIES BENEATH SURFACES AND IN THE "CRACKS" WHERE TRUTH REVEALS ITSELF. HOW DID THAT IDEA SHAPE THE FINAL PAINTING YOU MADE ON THE TARPAULIN AND WHAT DREW YOU TO AMBIGUITY AS A CENTRAL ELEMENT OF THE WORK?

Yes, but not in the sense that I’m uncovering a hidden truth that was already there. Often the process reveals something to me as well. Sometimes the cracks expose earlier layers, but sometimes the opening itself becomes the image. What starts as a gap or a removed section can suddenly become central, and in the best cases something appears that I hadn’t seen before.

That uncertainty is important to me. I think a good painting cannot be fully understood. Once an image feels completely resolved, it often loses part of its tension. Different possibilities can exist at the same time without having to settle on a final answer, and that openness is one of the things that keeps a painting alive for me.

WHAT INITIALLY ATTRACTED YOU TO WORKING WITH 4BYSIX? WAS IT THE CURIOSITY OF WORKING ON AN UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIAL, OR DID YOU FEEL THERE WAS A PARTICULAR ALIGNMENT BETWEEN YOUR PRACTICE AND THEIR MISSION TO USE ART AS A CHANNEL FOR POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACT?

The invitation came at a time when I was already experimenting with different surfaces and materials, so the tarpaulin felt like an interesting challenge. A material that behaves differently from a traditional canvas can push a painting in unexpected directions, and I generally enjoy that. The project also provided a clear framework without being restrictive, which left enough room to develop the work on my own terms.

FOLLOWING THE THEME OF 4BYSIX’S INITIATIVE, DO THESE ISSUES LIKE CONCERNS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL STABILITY INFLUENCE THE THEMES OF YOUR WORK, OR PERHAPS THE WAY YOU APPROACH YOUR STUDIO PRACTICE AND THE MATERIALS YOU USE?

Environmental concerns are not a central theme in my work, but I appreciate projects that give existing materials a second life. The tarpaulin arrived with its own history, traces, and limitations, and those qualities became part of the painting process. Materiality has always been important to me. Different surfaces create different possibilities, and discovering what a material can contribute to an image is part of the work.

LOOKING AHEAD, WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? ARE THERE NEW THEMES, MATERIALS, OR VISUAL LANGUAGES YOU’RE INTERESTED IN EXPLORING IN YOUR UPCOMING WORK, OR DIRECTIONS YOU FEEL YOUR PRACTICE IS CURRENTLY MOVING TOWARD?

Recently, drawing has started to play a much bigger role in my practice. Layered drawings and painted elements are beginning to overlap more directly, and I’m trying to leave more space for those encounters instead of resolving everything through additional layers. More hybrid figures are also starting to appear, particularly combinations of human and animal forms and shifting relationships between them. Beyond that, I’m looking forward to working on larger formats again and seeing where these developments lead.