Eva Steynen.Deviation(s) is pleased to present 'Starbuck' by Johannes Ulrich Kubiak (b. 1961, Annaberg-Buchholz, Germany)

The exhibition presents a new series of 40 watercolour drawings on paper in the form of a maritime travel diary, 'Starbuck', named after the altruistic character in Herman Melville’s grand novel about destruction and fanaticism. 

Over the past 30 years, Johannes Ulrich Kubiak has engaged in a process of experimentation with a variety of media in order to research depth, colour and structure. His work challenges and intertwines traditional genres and techniques in painting, drawing and photography informed by shifts in contemporary digital media. 

In his drive to explore different media and investigate what lies beneath the surface, Kubiak's work shifted from 1992 – 2002 from painting to photography. For ten years, he worked together with Ludwig Rauch in the artistic collaborative of Kubiak & Rauch. Similar to his pursuits in painting, he explored transparency of layers and the use of different supports in the photographic process.

This quality of transparency and visibility of process are apparent in Kubiak's aquarelles. The basis of these paintings are underlying structures distilled from photographs and sketches from his travels and urban wanderings. Throughout this body of work, the figure seems to disintegrate under the surface of the composition, revealing every single brush stroke, placed side-by-side or layered one over the other, disrupting and creating new relations of colour. 

Whilst he works on them, the paintings lie flat, opening potential spaces that omit awareness of above and below. Through intense concentration and a painstaking process, figures emerge out of variated structures of vibrant colour. 

J.U.Kubiak has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Germany, U.S., Austria, France, Belgium. His work is held in several collections, incl., Deutsche Bank, Bundesbank, Kunstsammlung Sachsen, Berlinische Galerie.

Works

ROBERT SOROKO 

°1990, B

lives and works in Antwerp

Robert Soroko searches for possibilities to keep his sculptures mobile. By wind or by hand they move very subtile, almost invisible. Hard materials like metal he gives form, they show a captured movement, as if the welding has suddenly stopped. Although they are robust they show a purified simple line. We already saw his works combining soft bamboo with iron. During the Covid-19 lockdown he started to work on a series for outside. This new steel figures come in clear basic colours. Making a different intervention depending on the material an space. They recall to figures out of old cultures, their slow elegant movements inspired by Tai-Chi, organic figures that seem walking out of another world.

Robert Soroko was laureate at the KASK, Antwerp and received first price for drawing, 2015 and sculpture, 2019. Exhibitions include: 'The ‘Old Up & Down’ (curator Hans Theys) at d'Apostrof, Meigem, Galerie Annie Gentils and Antwerp Art Pavillion; ‘Cook it, Boil it, Bake it or Forget it’ (curator Nadia Bijl) Zuiderpershuis, Antwerp; ‘Artist proposal for a private composition #3’, Aboutart, Antwerp; Kunstenbiënnale Aardenburg, NL; PHP4, Rooms, Pink House, Antwerp; Eva Steynen.Deviation(s), Antwerp (B)