Jonas Koch’s Private Universe of Possibility

Jonas Koch doesn’t want you to worry too much about what life is going to throw your way. The Berlin-based artist’s meandering paintings, awash in colourful figures that seem to emerge and then dance away before your eyes, are somehow both philosophical utterances and the proofs of those very statements. Koch allows the forms in his works to develop their own volition and speak for themselves, which for him is central to keeping the paintings honest and playful. Trying to plan too much, trying to figure out exactly where to go next and how to get there, can end up working against you; Koch’s paintings invite you to loosen up, to toss the map out the window, to imagine a world where no one ever told you what to do. 

Sleek sat down with Jonas to discuss his creative process, what abstraction means to him, and two of his recent paintings, which are now available at Sleek Art. 

Your paintings have eye-grabbing titles – ‘As Far as I Can Remember You Weren’t in My Dreams’, ‘Vivid Like a Boat on Cement’. When painting, do you try to represent a specific concept, or do you paint viscerally and then think about what the artwork means to you?

I usually keep a notebook in which I write down ideas, titles, colour concepts or words that go well with my idea of what a painting should be named. And then I start from there. It also strongly depends on the mood I’m in or what I want to say or do with the painting after it’s done. Usually bigger works involve more planning and smaller ones sometimes just start to form because I like the colour blue the day I started them.

Are you interested in confronting representations of your work? Does this have anything to do with your conception of art?

I think I can be a quiet, ambivalent character, it’s hard for me to decide what I want and how I want to say it.

In terms of art I usually follow the idea that the object (no matter if it is a painting, sculpture, drawing, poem, or so on) has to speak to you first. It has to attract your attention, you have to be wanting to look at it, feel it and take it in. The meaning behind it or its cultural purpose is secondary if it doesn’t spark a fire in you and set a feeling free.

How would you situate these paintings within your larger oeuvre? Would you say that they mark a particular point in your artistic trajectory, and if so, what is that point?

These paintings are very influenced by the general state of mind during those winter months, Covid in the back of everyone’s head, unsure about the coming year. To me they speak a much clearer language than a lot of my other works, the colours are more subtle and darker, because I was trying to bring a calmness in the works but also capture this melancholic feeling a lot of people are dealing with. 

What is your relationship with colour? Do your colours have specific representations in your imagination?

I like how colours can trigger scenarios in your head, or at least they do for me and I try to transport that into my visual work. Abstraction holds the possibility of sketching an idea without giving away its initial plan; that is what I like about it, and colours are a big part of that.

This idea of sketching something “without giving away its original plan,” seems like a real key to your work. How might you describe this original plan, and how do you approach it?

Like a lot of other artists, I do sketches before I try to turn them into a larger painting on canvas. Maybe you could call that the “original plan” or like some kind of blueprint. But these sketches usually only work as some kind of direction, more or less I always end up in a different direction than the one I intentionally started with. Which is fine and gives the whole process a lot more freedom. 

I think it’s the same with life in general, it’s good to have some kind of goal in your head but you shouldn’t question your path just because the end result is different than planned.

Credits: 

Jonas Koch – Find his painting here