HELLO RUBEN AND WELCOME TO 4BYSIX’S FIRST AUCTION OF 2026! IT IS GREAT TO WORK WITH YOU AND THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SPEAK WITH US. FIRSTLY, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHAT INITIALLY INSPIRED YOU TO PURSUE THE STYLE OF ART YOU ARE BEST KNOWN FOR NOW?

Thank you very much for the opportunity to collaborate with you. It is an honour to work together and to support your wonderful project. I didn’t choose my artistic style – it chose me. It came to me entirely by chance during the early years of my Fine Art studies. Even in the foundation class, my professor, Norbert Bisky, said to me: “Ruben, why do your paintings have such an old musty quality about them? It’s interesting.”

At that time, I was already experimenting with hydrophilic and hydrophobic paints, as well as with specialised priming techniques, and I was gravitating towards the colour world I work with today – characterised by patina and fragmentary forms. One day, I found myself dissatisfied with a painting I was working on. I turned the canvas over, intending to begin a new piece on the reverse side. In doing so, I discovered the structures of the previously painted image visible on the back – the very structures I am now known for. I came to understand how they had technically emerged, and I then completed the painting on the reverse side in mirror image using this technique. That was the birth of the first “Renaitre” artwork. Over the past eight years, I have worked intensively on researching and developing this technique further.

GIVEN YOUR PRACTICE’S FOCUS ON MATERIAL EXPERIMENT AND THE CONCEPTUAL IDEA ABOUT ART HISTORY AND SYMBOLISM, HAVE YOU FOUND THAT THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE TWO CHANGES DEPENDING ON THE IMAGE YOU ARE DEPICTING?

It is, of course, always a balancing act between concept, technique and experimentation. As an artist, I am required to find the right equilibrium for each emerging work – between content and process, between experiment and established technique. I have to rely on my intuition in this, and after all these years, that is something I can trust. 

HOW DO YOU APPROACH COLOUR AS AN ACTIVE ELEMENT IN YOUR PRACTICE? DO YOU SEE ITS FUNCTION AS A PRIMARY REFERENCE TO A POINT IN HISTORY OR A TRIGGER FOR AN EMOTION OR ATMOSPHERE?

I see colour more as an emotional key. The historical reference in my work is evident in any case. In my imagery, I mostly orient myself toward the compositional structures of the early Middle Ages (often Romanesque). 

GIVEN THAT YOUR MATERIAL PROCESS IS UNIQUE TO COTTON OR LINEN, HOW DID YOU FIND THE ADAPTION TO 4BYSIX’S TARPAULIN CANVAS? DID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE MUCH OF YOUR SIGNATURE LAYERING PROCESS DUE TO THE INDUSTRIAL AND IMPERMEABLE SURFACE?

I had to completely reverse my working process due to the non-absorbent tarpaulin. I built up layers on the front using airbrush and acrylic, and then removed parts of the paint again using various techniques, all the way back down to the raw tarpaulin.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE WORK YOU HAVE MADE FOR 4BYSIX? WERE THERE ANY SPECIFIC HISTORICAL INFLUENCES WHICH INFORMED THE DIRECTION OF THE OUTCOME?

For 4BYSIX’s canvas material, I had to develop an entirely new technique and approach, as my usual method does not function at all on waterproof, non-absorbent surfaces. For your resistant material, I therefore began experimenting with the application and removal of paint, as well as with new forms of layering. It is exciting to work on unfamiliar terrain again.

WHICH OF THE TWO, MATERIAL EXPERIMENTATION AND THE COEXISTENCE OF MEDIAEVAL AND MODERN, IS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE PIECE YOU HAVE MADE FOR 4BYSIX? CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THIS CHOICE? 

With the new working material, the material experiment was naturally at the forefront in my initial attempts. However, as my visual worlds consistently combine medieval imagery with contemporary questions and references, this dialogue remains central to the work as well. 

YOU ARE KNOWN FOR YOUR DIGESTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIALS AND LAYERED APPLICATION WHICH RESEMBLES THE LIKES OF OLD FRESCOS AND THE PROCESS OF DECAY. DOES ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY FACTOR INTO YOUR PRACTICE AND THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT PRESERVING ART’S FUNCTION WITHIN SOCIETY? 

In my practice, it is of course difficult to work sustainably, as I depend on chemical and industrially manufactured materials that cannot be self-produced or recycled with the same quality or effect. In my private life, I am very conscious about living sustainably, but in my artistic work it is nearly impossible. What remains for me is a mindful use of materials and the proper disposal of waste products.

FINALLY, HOW IS LIFE IN THE STUDIO AND CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON? ARE YOU SEEKING NEW INSPIRATION DRAWN FROM HISTORY OR THINKING ABOUT NEW PROJECTS?

At the moment, time feels as though it is racing. I have a number of projects that I am developing simultaneously, and I am currently opening up a new body of work that engages with the same imagery, but through a different technique and on a new type of painting surface. — I’m keeping busy, something is cooking.