Monolith (2019) Painting by David Berkel

What fascinates me about art is its quality to express your impressions into new worlds cascading out of your phantasy. They are all conceived as meaningful material. Already as a child, I loved drawing my own worlds like jungle-like peninsulas crowded with bizarre plants and animals, like those of little Hieronymos Bosch, maybe. Having discovered oil- and acrylic paintings as a teenager - thanks to my former tutor and mentor - I created my first paintings.

Because I wanted to dive deeper into the realms of impression and expression, I wanted to become an artist. Looking forward to sharing my results in public discourse and developing my aesthetic rhetoric, I enrolled in visual arts in 2007 at the University of Art and Design in Kassel. The Swiss artist Urs Lüthi became my teacher.

By 2009, I had been studying abroad in Bologna for half a year due to an Erasmus fellowship. Attending the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, I discovered etching and sculptor as additional means for my artistic expression. My work with plaster and its material characteristics would significantly enhance my later paintings.

As I got a liking for a more arty and historical environment - after turning back to Kassel - I switched to the University of the Arts Berlin in October 2010, where I got in touch with the tempera technique I hooked on ever since. It combines fluidity and tenacity at the same time. Since then, an intriguing watercolor-like quality has characterized my large tempera paintings; the edges of my former, mire-like "jungles" are totally liquefied.

Having passed my examination as "Meisterschüler" in 2014, I kept on my newly discovered tempera-technique and my dreamlike land- and seasides. My works subconsciously hark back to early Chinese paintings such as Wan Ximeng. Several exhibitions followed from 2014 until 2016.
In 2017, I displayed my work in a derelict, listed building. This was one of my most striking solo shows, where I arranged my paintings, objects, and drawings in the almost dilapidated rooms of the building that had been working as a stage for me.

2019, I was granted a fellowship near Hamburg. The couple holding the foundation hit me while I was attending an art contest that I participated in. Working calmly in the rural side due to my fellowship, I enriched my vast repertoire with a new technique similar to the waterproof plaster surface used in Moroccan architecture. In other words, I resumed my earlier plaster works differently, mixing chalk, shale, and pigments with egg-tempera and applying them onto canvas. Producing a kind of stucco, I subtly lime the layers down - some areas stronger, others weaker. The result: paintings suggesting extreme deepness and temporality. You can compare my work with that of a lapidary.

• Nationality: GERMANY
• Date of birth : 1986
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary German Artists