By Al Gord
Born in 1965 in East Germany, Jens discovered at an early age his talent for drawing and painting. His work attracted the attention of the other children, who appreciated his ability to draw a Mickey Mouse from memory. His talents further flourished during his time as a student, as his work was published in several magazines. During this time he won federal prizes in Germany as well as a prize from the state of Rhineland Palatinate for illustration.
In 2000, he met his Catalan wife and moved with her to a small town by the Mediterranean Sea, Arenys de Mar, which he calls home and where he and his wife raised their family. Inspired by the location, Jens has constantly continued to add more works to his artistic legacy, with always new projects in the making.
Jens, your journey as an artist is quite a complex and fascinating one. Do you think the fact that you grew up in East Germany influenced you as an artist?
Yes in many aspects, I remember a preface of a book of that time “Nowhere is dreamed more than in the small mountain valleys – because of the narrowness of the horizon…” When you know how much there is in the world, but you cannot see it or experience it, you make your very own idea of everything.
We had such romantic ideas about the wide world, about being on the road, about the magnificence of faraway lands and magical places. In addition, we listened to the music of the folk movement and the beat generation and read books that spoke of freedom and adventure… this influenced us very much as young people at that time. And of course also the assumption that anywhere is better than at home. The goal at that time was simply to be on the road, without borders.
Since I spun and drew a lot, my imagination often ran away with me. Cars with wings, people in ecstatic movements, red wine drinkers, dancers, bullfighters, tramps in denim suits with backpacks – such things I drew back then – always something with movement.
The idea of Romanticism is a powerful one. Dreams and hopes are what motivate us. Was one of your dreams to study art at that time?
Yes, I had thought about that, although studying art was not considered so hip under socialism. However, I often tried to apply to study design, which at that time in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) meant – learning to give everyday products a form that could be produced under the economic restrictions.
Since it never worked out with the admission, I learned to be a cabinetmaker, but I never became a real craftsman. I was more the artist type, which is why I also did my apprenticeship at the theatre in Chemnitz. There were many colourful characters employed there and you could go to the after-show parties every night until three in the morning at the theatre club, where it was teeming with interesting people. I had many friends who were much older than I was. They worked in their professions by day and pursued their artistic and social interests at night.
Yours is not an overnight success story, but rather it is a tale of an artist who has a lot of life experience in various art related fields. Can you tell us a little about your experience as a graduate designer and illustrator, a concept artist, and a 3D media designer and how it influences your style of art?
When the iron curtain fell, I was just 24 years old. I moved alone to Frankfurt with the legendary two bags of clothes and a lot of adventurous spirit and tried my luck. Building cabinets and tables, I lacked the seriousness for that at the time. I could not wait to travel and make some money in the process. That is how I got into the trade fair and exhibition construction. At the very beginning, I was an assembler. After just one week, I went to Geneva, then Paris, Brussels, London, Vienna, and West Berlin, where the punk movement was still going on. Honestly, I was so overwhelmed that I cried when I read the street signs on the Autobahn.
My colleagues, the fitters, quickly realized that I was good at drawing and brought me their family photos. I drew portraits of them with pen and ink, which they then gave to their wives and parents for their birthdays. I got into a rhythm of drawing every night after work until two in the morning. After a year, I had a considerable portfolio together and started applying to colleges. I graduated from high school and I immediately got a place at the Design College in Darmstadt near Frankfurt. I studied illustration there with a professor who encouraged me to go my own way, to cultivate my style and to look for my own projects.
My first office that I owned during that time, together with two other students, was a wild mixture of graphic gainful employment, free art projects, parties and exuberant, colourful phantasmagoria. We had completely absurd free art projects going on, which we did not understand ourselves, but about which we philosophized pompously with local journalists and sometimes, up to one hundred people came to our wild afternoons. On the other hand, even as students we did highly serious, sophisticated graphic work, business reports and life-marketing appearances for large companies. We were incredibly creative on all levels back then.
After graduation, I started drawing the setups and designs for shows, events and fairs with pens and markers. The 3D render and animation programs were pretty much in their infancy back then. There was again a young and wild company, Spacewood, in Frankfurt in the Osthafen, which was really rough and rowdy back then. My partner and founder of the company was a visionary. I joined as a designer. Desks were wooden planks on oil drums. I drew the designs by hand, coloured them, and a bicycle courier rode them in a cardboard roll to the big banks in Frankfurt, which were our clients at the time. Feedback came in usually a week later, emails were just starting to catch on at the time and we coordinated most things by phone and fax.
However, the demands of the customers and the technical possibilities evolved very fast around the turn of the millennium and soon I had to teach myself all of the important 3D computer animated design and rendering programs. Everything grew quickly. I worked many years for very important clients, designing and organizing their presentations, for some major cities and a lot of well-known German and international companies.
During this time, I could make only a little art for myself, but I was not unhappy. Things just developed in the direction of design and project implementation for big shows and fairs, and we could earn very good money with it.
I started drawing again when I moved to Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast. My drawing style, however, was not influenced by the years of computer work. It is as it has always been, rather unadjusted and gloomy and rough, so out off the cuff. It came to me naturally, without being an academic about it, people are always amazed when I sketch freely.
Llop – The Wolf Cycle N°4
Aside from your talents as an artist, you have experience as both an exhibition maker and an event manager in your own company. Do you feel that those experiences help you as a visual artist and in understanding the industry?
In 2016, with my two sons, we founded Mediaterrani Creative & Events S.L. (MC&E) as an umbrella organization for our activities – art, design, exhibitions, fairs and events. I always had my own different companies but in 2016, we established ourselves in Barcelona as an event and design agency, known for our quality and implementation strength. Between 2016 and 2019, we really hit our stride here.
From this time comes the will and self-image to work in a structured, goal-oriented and tenacious manner. Working on large and long-lasting projects has taught us to control our fears without losing respect for responsibility. Of course, during this time you also learn what it means to organize an event or even an art exhibition with everything that goes with it including: how to be cost-oriented, how larger crowds tick, what you have to offer to patrons, how to design rooms and open spaces, how to deal with customers and how to make marketing campaigns.
Thanks to that, we now use all of these skills to implement our ideas regarding art production and art events, it obviously helps us a lot. We are still at the beginning in many aspects, but we want to continue creating spectacular things.
What is fascinating for me is the varied experiences of the artists I am lucky to meet. During your time working on exhibitions and events, you organized showcases around the world including the city of Munich, and country appearances for Thailand and South Korea. What was that experience like for you?
First, you are on the road a lot, sitting in cars and planes for a long time and living in hotels, making phone calls, writing emails and meeting people. To oversee a big event and to take care of the thousand little things that are necessary, that keeps your adrenaline level constantly high. Your contacts, even from very important companies and institutions, are often normal people who bear responsibility and who want the same thing as you do… namely success!
From the first briefing to the handover of the project, I was used to designing and coordinating everything myself, which meant that I had to cope with a lot of stress and many long working days. Such projects often run over very long periods and then you have several of them at the same time during the season, often in spring or fall. In the turbulent show business, you need the ability to make the right decisions in the eye of the Storm. But once you have successfully completed several major projects with your clients, and if you give them a little more than they expect from you each time, then they begin to love you and that feels just as good as the conclusion of the successful project in itself, the feeling of having done it great again. It is a pure endorphin rush to the point that I have seen strong men crying on-site.
I understand that everything changed for you in 2020 when the pandemic played a huge role in both your art career and your business. Can you tell us more about the impact it had on you and the defining moment where you realized that you wanted to focus on being an artist?
Yes, the impact of the pandemic on show business is well known. It went from 150% to zero in March 2020, as everyone in the industry says. We even had our own show appearance with our company in February presenting ourselves to the world, where we planned the future with our partners and new potential customers. Then suddenly everything came to a stall. The whole industry of trade fairs, events and exhibitions was down.
I suddenly had plenty of time. I started swimming long distances in wetsuits in the open sea, early in the morning to stay mentally and physically strong and to find a new rhythm. Then I looked for alternatives and tried pretty much everything I could manage with my creative skills. I soon realized, however, that there were many people hanging around who were also looking for alternatives. Everyone was now designing shelters for COVID, furniture, interiors, virtual applications, interiors for caravans and tiny houses. The market was full of them.
During this time, I found a way back to myself – to drawing and to my own art. It returned immediately. I did about 200 large-scale watercolours and mixed-techniques in 2020 and 2021, sometimes 2 or 3 pieces a day.
A good friend of mine from Catalonia, Carles Flaque, also known as Deepingtxals, who is a musician, was producing and recording an album at the time and he asked me to do illustrations for his cover and booklet. We sat together and developed a whole series of drawings to go with his work. For one particular song, he wanted to shoot a music video in a historical prison with a medieval ambience. For which, I then spent two months in 2021 making nine large paintings in acrylic on canvases on a theme, which served as a stage set. This was not done for money, but for the rush of creating.
After that, I presented these paintings at a festival. Shortly after I received the first requests for exhibitions and things started to happen. The highlight was the participation in an exhibition in New York in a gallery in the Lower Eastside this January.
The Seaside Series at the Posidonia Festival 2021
As I was learning more about you, I remember you stating that your move to Barcelona and being close to the sea still does not give you piece after more than two decades. What does that mean for you and how does it affect the art you create?
We live just outside Barcelona city, in the north in a place with a port and fishing. It is quite calm. In the past 20 years, I often had to go to Barcelona city every day for months at a time, for work or for personal reasons. I once had offices in Sant Antoni and Eixample for several years. It was always exciting there.
I feel like it is impossible to ever fully know this city. When I am there, I always feel a nervous restlessness. It is noisy, people often drive in a breakneck and undisciplined way, there is a constant honking of horns, and sometimes there is downright anarchy. However, around every corner there is something new – the streets, the buildings, the bars, the restaurants, the lifestyle, the port, the traffic, the people – there is always, always, always something going on.
You also have the light, the long summers, the sun, the warmth, a city that opens up to the sea. That is already great. Being close to the sea creates hope and expansiveness. You are a different person. There is always a way out, a view of the waves, optimism. I believe that these perceptions and this energy also flows into my drawings.
For those who are not yet familiar with your art, there are elements and stylistic features, which might be considered darker and edgier. How would you describe your style and works?
I am a person with a great restlessness when it comes to making things. I am interested in things that go to my heart that take me along. Often I think or read about things that are dark and disturbing. The way I draw represents my personality, my attitude and my sensitivities; you can call it –furious expressionism–. It is nothing subtle or harmonious or lovely, I sometimes break my pencils while drawing.
As a draftsman, but also as a designer, I love to put on these morbid textures, to show dripping colours and splashes as a sign of imperfection, to throw quick strokes of precision and quality on the paper, to depict characterful, even dark and edgy types – in this way – I am influenced by it!
Art is very personal and as artists, we can become very attached to our work. Do you have one specific painting or series that holds special meaning for you?
On the one hand, there are the abstract heads, which are gloomy, grim and edgy. That was the first series during the pandemic, after I lost my economic existence practically overnight.
Then very close to my heart are the illustrations for stories by Charles Bukowski, which I have been doing on and off for years. There it is about the buried life – as the master says; types and scenes that I see in front of me after reading and then portray on paper. They are also all pretty hard, unrefined and sometimes ugly… you can see the drawings on my website under “Black and White”.
In the end, and right now, I love the Beach series. I got into the habit during the pandemic of using the sea here on my doorstep whenever I am there, using it as my pool in the morning at dawn and noticing every change in the light, the weather and waves over the different seasons of the year. I like people doing things on empty beaches, going out with a board, swimming, walking…. sitting. I often draw these things because I live in this feeling and atmosphere.
Llop – The Wolf Cycle N°9 – In Progress
I know that you have some huge events planned for 2022. Would you be willing to give us a sneak preview as to what this upcoming year holds for you?
I have already focused on some events and solo exhibitions that take place here around Barcelona. My home municipality offers me the opportunity to exhibit in various cultural institutions and galleries. I would also like to stage an exhibition of large works in the courtyard of an ancient prison in Mataro. This is under discussion. I received invitations in January to come and exhibit in Genoa, Rome and Frankfurt. There is also a music video already produced and ready to be released, in which my paintings are the stage.
We have dates and places for various open air festivals in the spring, summer and autumn, a combination spectacle, musical event and art presentation in the ports here on the coast, which we have organized ourselves. I would like to do the same with my partners from Spacewood in the future in Frankfurt, Germany.
Jens, it has been such a pleasure learning more about you, your experience and your art. In closing, is there any message that you hope others take away from your art or any messages you wish to share with those new to the industry?
My message is – In the foreground is always the art, the work – the artist should step aside a bit and speak through his work. A good work of art makes that the viewer immediately recognizes your talent, your experience, your ease in mastering the technique and the depths in the expression. This happens subconsciously and you notice it immediately in the reactions of the audience.
Furthermore, I am of the opinion to always stay on the path and do not get discouraged. The galleries will not stand in line at the beginning and if they notice you, they will observe you for a while. You need a lot of patience, persistence, luck, timing, contacts, a thick portfolio of work, so that when that one moment to get a chance comes, catch it and bite. Art is a long distance run; it never stops! Sometimes there is that one train that just happens to pass you by once in a lifetime, when it arrives – run and jump on.
From his paintings to his upcoming large-scale events, Jens has a lot going on in the upcoming year. His creative adventures can be followed via his website, Instagram and Facebook.
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