Interview with Joseba Eskubi
February 2020
1. Would you like to live in the world you are creating in your paintings?
It would be really weird to be there. Many times the painting creates the feeling that all this represented world has its own logic and that it really works beyond its image.
2. How strong is the influence of your previous work on your new work?
Previous work always has a decisive influence. There are aspects of all
paintings that allow small modifications to the process line. Each work has a problem that requires another continuation and thus the result of all these years is chained as a visual river, formed by different pieces but inevitably linked.
This process, however, is not strictly lineal. Sometimes, works from years ago anticipate aspects of current painting. The process never is satiated, it always requires continuity where new variants appear that make the process something alive and in continuous movement.
The painting has something of indomitable, when you think you have built a system, new records appear that put it in question and reposition your vision and expectatives.
3. What are you currently working on?
In the last works I am introducing more references to the human figure. I am also using more textures and less saturated colors. I try that the forms acquire more weight and complexity. I have also begun to alter the land line composition, creating scenes with landscape references. The figures of the recent paintings appear more broken, it´s as if their internal tension had opened the limits.
4. Do you listen to music while working?
Music is always important in the studio. Intensify the emotion of the process. I usually listen to music like Sigur Ros, Matt Elliott, Nick Cave or Micah P. Hinson.
5. Which artists (or other people) are you inspired by?
There are many artists that interest me but I feel a special affinity with Goya, Morandi and Guston. They are artists who continually check and float in the air like a constant whisper.
I also find it stimulating for the painting to contemplate all that universe of small objects abandoned on the ground, a universe of ruins where materials are mixed without logic or meaning,
6. What is the best part of being an artist?
I like the daily emotion of being in the studio, expectant and attentive in that adventure of painting. Every day offers a new possibility, a renewal of something old but current at the same time.
7. Are there any ongoing projects or upcoming exhibitions where we
can see your work?
This year I have some projects not yet closed. I hope to continue painting and see how the work evolves.