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.

Learn more about the artist HERE