M A R T I N P A A S K E S E N

Born 1987 in Aarhus, Denmark.

Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Biography

Martin Paaskesen (*1987) is the son of a nurse and an engineer. Moved to Copenhagen in 2009 to become an actor, was admitted to a highly recognized acting school (The Danish National School of Performing Arts) , but discovered painting during his education and it took over. Today Martin is working with several galleries.

In his practice Martin is exploring the expressionistic and narrative painting. His approach is very intuitive and impulsive and originates from an urge to explore an imagery that balances between figuration and abstraction. The figuration is always present in his works but the abstraction (shapes, lines, surfaces) is just as important. Everything is connected and overlaps. Martin's process is very physical and tactile. He is present in the painting litteraly. This presence might have originigated due to his background as an actor where he used his body as a tool of expression.

Thematically, the artist works with the chaotic, destabilizing and incoherent, though in a clearly intentional ambiguity. He finds great inspiration in the imperfect - which often results in random occurrences that are very importantto embrace. At the same time, many of his paintings are painted directly on the raw, ungrounded canvas and if "mistakes" are made this cannot be changed again. It is a kind of subconscious dogma that he aspirse to and forces him to consideration.

Statement

Painting comes before the image.

"I work directly on raw canvas, where each painting slowly emerges through layers, repetition, and material shifts. The surface is built from hundreds of patches—fragments of canvas that accumulate into a structure with its own weight, tactility, and internal logic. The canvas is not a neutral support for an image but an active participant in the painting's becoming. The image is not applied to the surface; it is revealed through it.

Animals, objects, and fragments of language enter the paintings as temporary presences. They do not function as fixed symbols but as forms that introduce rhythm, tension, and character. They inhabit the painting rather than define it, existing alongside the material traces left by the process itself.

Each work often begins with an idea, a motif, or a line of inquiry, yet this serves as an opening rather than a plan. Through intuition, resistance, and chance, the material is allowed to shape the direction of the work. The process becomes a negotiation between intention and material, where control gradually shifts from the artist to the painting itself.

I do not experience painting as the construction of a message. Instead, I become gradually aware of something that already exists within the work. Only once the painting is finished does it emerge as an autonomous entity. At that point, my role changes: I become one viewer among many. I have witnessed the painting's making, but I do not claim authority over its meaning. Meaning is produced in the encounter between the work and the viewer.

I am interested in the point at which material and image become inseparable—where painting no longer represents something, but exists as a reality in itself."

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Exhibitions