JØKEN - Rise Up

Korneel Jeuken is a visual artist, cartoonist and illustrator. Under his alias Jøken, he has been making comic art paintings and drawings with a recognizable character for a number of years. The 'Blockheads' that he paints on the most diverse materials depict crazy characters, but also the need to hide as a creature behind a mask and to take on a new identity. Jøken calls the work 'New Cubism' because he has always had a fascination for the movement between the spatial and the flat surface. In his earlier work this led to abstract paintings and installations that depicted his inner world in an architectural way. It still plays a role in the current work because the figures in his world are often also built from blocks. Yet he does not want to limit himself to blocks. The making process must remain intuitive. Small sketches created in a stream of consciousness form the basis for paintings on wood, cardboard or canvas. Devils, rabbits, kings and skeletons, often dressed in suits and ties, inhabit the colorful world of Jøken: an apparently cheerful whole of neatly designed madness... Korneel Jeuken (Venray NL 1975) was educated at the St. Joost Academy and the Piet Zwart Institute and exhibited at home and abroad. He draws current cartoons for the daily newspaper De Gelderlander