Into, 2007
Christina Malbek (1971, DK)
Trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, Copenhagen
Lives and works in Copenhagen
It would be easy to describe Christina Malbek’s technique as ‘photoshop realist’ since her painting often resembles photo prints manipulated with various filters and effects provided by Photoshop. But Malbek in fact paints with airbrush technique, using pressurised spray cans with nozzles which finely distribute the paint. The method is commonly used in graffiti or in painting images on cars for example, and the surface effect is often technically perfect without trace of brushwork.
An important point of reference in Malbek’s painting is Nordic romantic landscape art, but graffiti too serves as a vital starting point. Recurring themes in her work are life’s lack of logic and a wish to give meaning to what one sees.
House in the Mountains is a large-scale extensive canvas where Christina Malbek combines sections from digital photos she has taken around Stavanger in Norway. The painting embraces wide contrasts, ranging from areas of ash-grey colour to others of intensive brilliance and lines varying from knife-edge to hazy.
Into is one of the artist’s most recent works. The subject matter is derived from urban settings with venomous yellow and greenish blue bands contrasting with areas of red and sooty black. The original digital pixel effect is plainly visible, and the work is one of the first in which the artist has included people.
House in the Mountains, 2007
Airbrush on canvas, 197 x 350 cm
Courtesy: Nykredit A/S
Into, 2007
Airbrush on canvas, 197 x 300 cm