"internalised" mit Kai D. Janik

In the organizer's words:

"internalized" - Vernissage on 15.11.2024

This ongoing series entitled "internalized" (2018 - ?) explores the influence of the environment on a person.

A self-portrait attempts to remain visible while being covered by layers of wax and various materials. With each layer, the portrait changes.

These mixed media works on canvas bring together very different materials, which contributes to the tension in the process and in the finished work.

Kai D. Janik was born in Ulm in 1990. He is a freelance artist, illustrator and art therapist (M.A.).

Kai now works in the Stuttgart area, after stopovers in Dortmund and Cardiff. In his childhood he developed a great interest in portrait painting and drawing. He acquired a number of techniques that now form the basis for his illustrations. He studied Art Therapy and Creative and Therapeutic Arts in search of new approaches and challenges in artistic work and ways of using art to support other people. This had a strong influence on his work. Through three-dimensional works and spatial installations, he eventually found his way to working with video and performance. In his portrait series, he plays with a more experimental approach.

For him, artistic work is initially a process of understanding and research. This includes the unfiltered collection of information and emotions, which are increasingly condensed and sharpened out of the conviction that this core that remains of a subject represents a starting point for the viewer's self-reflection. His work usually begins with an autobiographical perspective, which becomes a more universal experience in the completed work and increasingly incorporates the perspectives of others. Questions of identity are a core aspect of his work.