Bio

Kanrec Sakul (1989, Košice) works with detailed oil paintings, ob- sessive drawings and raw objects or installations. The artist’s paint- ings are dominated by a significant interest in experimentation with structures or organic forms. He works purposefully with repetition, geometric shapes or rela- tive perspective, which unfolds in an expressive and absurd color palette. By varying and combining glaze and pasty parts, a Fauvist sensibility and use of color, he builds surreal micro worlds dominat- ed by architectural vistas with an unclear function, period and place of their existence. Sakul offers various totemic objects, biomorphic shapes,interior details, platforms, cages, imaginary ceremonial sites or hints of urban structures unfolding on tiny formats or monumental canvases. An obvious interest in morphology influenced by biological elements is driven by visual automatism or associative painting, which are close to surrealist tendencies. He ironically vibrates on the wave of pseudo esoteric aesthetics or spiritual potential, but in reality his painting is very close to natural and biological forms arranged on the basis of their own rules. Sakul’s work is sometimes meditative, other times expressive. The depicted empty spaces breathe life even with- out the inclusion of figures. At first glance, the abstract-looking paint- ings present soft and articulated objects that are closest in character to flora or botanical fragments. Somewhere between the defragmentation of reality during the LSD trip and the absurd aesthetics of computer games, he builds sensi- tive ADHD worlds in which ornament has a function and nature sub- jugates everything around it.

text: Michal Stolárik

Kanrec Sakul  lives and works in Košice, Slovakia. Even he did not study art school, he has been painting since his childhood. "As a child, I knew that I would always paint. For me it was always an endless game that entertained me more than LEGO building set or any other toy". Since 2014, he has been depicting "Flowers That Don't Exist in Botany" in his works. Objects, paintings, drawings and installations have the character of fantasy flowers, lands or caves with unclear amorphous borders. Wild colors, changeable textures, material diversity and artificial light are typical features of his work. In Kanrec Sakul’s sometimes twisted, but also dark fantasies imprinted on his canvases, you can easily find also a subversive humor, but a desire for a better world as well.

text : Nikolas Bernáth

Selected solo shows:

2024 - Senfina Flugo, K13 Gallery Alfa, Košice, Slovakia 

2022 - Moonshine, Castle Imre Madach, Slovakia 

2020 - Sunshine, VUNU Gallery, Košice, Slovakia 

2018 - Žiara - TIC Gallery, Brno, Czech republic 

2016 - Kvety, KLUB, Košice, Slovakia 

2013 - Moderné obrazy, East Slovak Gallery, Košice, Slovakia

Selected group shows:

2024- No Surprise Longtermhandstand Hall Budapest, Hungary

2024- Different Persons, Kunsthalle Kosice, Slovakia 

2023- Spirit open , Szczecin , Poland 

2023- NO WEATHER TODAY , GMP Pilsen , Czechia

2022 - VUNU FOREVER, Kunsthalle Kosice, Slovakia

2022 - SCUPA, Sculpture Park Botanical Garden, Kosice, 

2021 - Flowers and Monsters, East Slovak Gallery, Kosice, Slovakia

2020 - Face of Work, Kasárne/KULTURPARK, Kosice, Slovakia

Artfairs : 

2022- The Others, Turin, Italy

2021- Volta Basel, Switzerland

Bibliography  selected :  

2024 Artviewer   NO SURPRISE at Longtermhandstand Hall – Art Viewer

2024   Kubaparis   Different Persons (kubaparis.com) 

2023  Flash Art  Magazine : Odmalička som chcel byť maliarom: Kanrec Sakul v rozhovore s Nikolasom Bernáthom | FlashArt.cz

2023 Catalog : paintings Kanrec Sakul 2023  by VUNU