Could you tell us a little about yourself? Where did you grow up? And has this informed your work?
I am Danish where I have lived approximately half my life. The first half has been spent in Zambia, the Philippines, Tanzania as well as the UK. I suppose moving around a fair bit while growing up has quite naturally provided me with an ongoing interest in cultural difference/similarity, and how these can be defined in visual terms. Cartoons were always part of my visual surroundings while growing up, and seem omnipresent in almost every society. The more or less universal nature of cartoons is very appealing to me and holds great communicative potential.  

What will you be exhibiting with Jotta at The Other Art Fair?
At Jotta, I will be exhibiting some recent paintings and drawings done over the past three months.

What narratives inform the work you're showing?
For these particular works, I have been formally interested in the visual language of the early days of Hollywood animation and its relationship to painting. With regards to the narrative, I wanted to hint at a more obviously sinister undercurrent than most of my previous work without giving away too much of the story. Apart from the obvious references to the dark flipside to cartoon imagery, the work also explores various notions regarding idiosyncratic memory as well as collective memory, and ideally the work occupies a middle territory between the two.

How do you find the source material for the characters which inhabit your work?
Mainly the internet on extended searches through classic cartoon archives.

Could you tell us a little about your technical process?
I generally make a point out of not being very technical at all. That said, once a general outline has been established, I usually start slapping the oil paint on in a more or less expressive manner in order to contrast the otherwise very graphic nature of the work.

What is your approach to the commercial side of being an artist - selling your own art work?
As far as selling goes, I don’t have a huge problem with it. It is a necessary evil that can have extremely negative consequences if one is not vigilant of course. Buying direct from the artist is an interesting platform that I don’t really have much bad to say about.

What is coming up next for you?
A few things, all of which are in their early stages at the moment. I am working on a new series of paintings  that I hope to show sometime this year.

The Other Art Fair runs from Thursday May 10 - May 13, at Ambika P3. Jotta will be hosting daily Curated Walks and exhibiting new works by Erik Bendix amongst other Jotta artists. Find out more about Jotta at The Other Art Fair here.