In his Berlin studio, Fjorsk paints with an urgency that feels almost confessional. His canvases, often in stark black and white, reveal an ongoing dialogue with memory, fantasy, and loss. From airbrushed medieval castles to distorted human figures, his work captures the unease of modern existence without trying to resolve it.

Recently returned from a residency in Bucharest, Fjorsk describes his process as both impulsive and reflective. His fascination with hermeticism and childhood memories gives form to a universe that feels personal yet universal. The castle, a recurring motif in his work, becomes a metaphor for isolation and exploration a place where imagination and history intersect.

In this conversation, Fjorsk speaks about his evolving relationship with painting, his resistance to structure, and the simple rituals that keep him anchored. He doesn't claim to have answers; instead, he paints his way through uncertainty.

Let's start from the present. What's been on your mind lately inside or outside the studio?

I’ve been thinking about the couple in the painting ‘The Embrace’ from 1966. I’m drawing and painting this couple together over and over, the hands just keep getting bigger. Its like a distorted man kissing a woman. I spoke to a poet in Romania about it and she said ‘Its not enough to have big hands’. Its important for some reason, maybe irrational.

I just returned from Bucharest, I was there for half a year. I had a Residency and a show there in the gallery a close friend opened, Pharmakon. That was in February then I stayed, had a studio and all. Met a lot of great artists and people there.

Can you speak about a particular painting like Three Heads or Castle Fjorkenstein and how it evolved conceptually from sketch to final work?

Sure, about Fjorskenstein. It’s pretty big, 260 x 200 cm in black/white. Its made with Indian ink and acrylic. I grew up in a village where there was a small castle made of rocks in the middle of a playground. We started smoking a lot of weed there. The environment was kind of proper and pediatric. The castle became the best place to escape. It came from a naive childhood fantasy, including the video games I grew up with.

As I aged it grew philosophical underpinnings when I got into hermeticism and a appreciation for the dark ages. The world was more of an adventure when it wasn’t solved. Because of that the fantasy felt suitable to dissociate into. A castle is kinda like a forest, many corridors, easy to get lost. So its about that, the story of the grail with the knights. They all sit around the table and decide to go look for it. They get to this forest and each of them enter where its darkest for them. Its something like that with castles.

What recent themes or techniques are you experimenting with that you haven't yet shown publicly?

In Romania I was working with oils and a lot of color, applying them straight out of the tube, painting big figures and faces. I was using many rolls of paper towel to erase and reapply them. It was part of the series anti-hero, inverted bodies. Their insides are outward, as armor almost.

Or they are dissolving. I found I had an antagonistic relationship with color, I don’t really have an understanding. I use one color to cancel out another. Then mixing and moving them around, I like when it shouldn’t work but then it does. Its been tricky for me to stay on one way of working. Especially airbrush, it has different connotations now and sometimes I think its too fast. When I started using it, the attention span wasn’t so fractured yet. I’ve always been very impatient, it’s something different to come from the opposite end.

Do you see painting as a narrative act, or more as a psychological landscape?

I paint what comes to me, images or ideas, things I’ve seen. It can be what’s happening in my life at the moment, sometimes its more a sensitive time. Could be a desire or a loss or something. I get stuck on some of it. The narrative happens afterwards when you attempt playing with it.

The psychological parts appear in the work by itself, I think. It was like roleplaying earlier, I was more conscious of it in the beginning. I think being naive in that way helped a lot in making the works. As time passes things want to solidify, it becomes more demanding. Its been great to make that series of works outside my usual environment. The narrative is all you have to make sense of what happens in life, its kind of inevitable. And the works come out of that.

““The city makes it easy to escape into fantasy.””

— Fjorsk

What music, films or books influence your visual world?

I just read the Futurological congress by Stansislav Lem. A society high on illusion. There’s a drug for everything. There’s no outlet only solutions. Everything has to make sense. And Happy Days by Jason Williamson, pretty much the same, just in the 2000s UK. Its about honesty and being honest with yourself, especially in how its written. Music I usually play on the max volume. I find a track and just loop it all day. If its really good it can go on for days. It becomes a sort of incantation.

What does a typical day look like for you when you're not painting?

I’m in bed mostly.

Where are you living right now, and how does that place influence your daily rhythm?

In Berlin, I arrived early 2020. The streets being empty and being somewhat anonymous definitely had an effect on how my paintings evolved. I started airbrushing in black and white around that time. Started visiting abandoned places in particular the soviet village hidden in a forest outside of Berlin, Vogelsang. We were doing a lot of offsite shows putting artworks in bunkers or glass houses or empty buildings. I was fortunate to meet people who believed in what I’m doing. The city makes it easy to escape into fantasy. Its stuck while everything else moves on at an accelerating speed. The things that happened here, historically and socially are still present.

Are there any habits or quiet obsessions that help you stay grounded?

Reading, writing, walking. I walk a lot. I don’t like bicycles. I listen the same track on repeat, cook the same food on repeat. But grounded i’m not sure, not always. Im pretty impulsive, I consume a lot, I’m watching a lot of crime. Not necessarily the worst ones but those are the most captivating usually haha. Plenty of bad habits too.

How do you approach time outside of work? Is rest part of your practice?

The Rest is needed in the world and the way shit is going. You want to have a rhythm for yourself, a small world. The Rest is in the studio when you’re working. I’m fortunate enough to be able to have that. Then still, sometimes Im too afraid or distracted. The outside creeps in and I just spend hours on the phone. I think thats a personal problem though. Generally I try to be in the studio everyday to touch something.

Do you see yourself more as a painter or as someone who paints?

Someone who paints. The identity part is tricky. I’ve done sculpture too, inflatables or metal. I was in a dark wave band once. But when someone introduces me they say; “This is Fjorsk, he’s a painter”.

“Oh nice, can I see? What do you paint”

“Yes sure, ehh castles or goblins, something” “Oh, I think I’ve seen this before” or “Oh, its dark”.

I don’t think its that dark really.

What's something you believe in, but rarely talk about?

You don’t need much talent or taste if the work is honest. The more honest you’re able to be with yourself the more real and better the work becomes. People react to that when they see or hear it. The artists and friends that I’ve gotten the most from are the ones who are the most self actualized. Doesn’t mean they are good people or bad people, they accept it and live with it.

Are there any new projects you're working on?

I’m working on a series of works following the anti-hero paintings. A transition of painting what’s within to whats without. Confronting things infront of me, trying my best to be more honest basically. Next is a group show in Bucharest ‘The Fantastic Belt’ at Sandwich Gallery Neurohope, a collab with Pharmakon.