Jens Kunik

Jens Kunik (*1963, Bad Säckingen) is a painter based in Berlin. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1986 to 1993, completing his degree as Meisterschüler under Prof. Michael Buthe.

His work moves between abstraction and the figurative — not as a contradiction, but as a continuum. The paintings from the 1990s are large-format works in oil, defined by organic form, vibrant color, and a tension between structure and dissolution. Works from this period are held in public collections including the Museum für Neue Kunst in Freiburg and the Museum im Ritterhaus in Offenburg.

More recent work returns to the human figure — people observed on Berlin streets, in cafés, on park benches. Painted from photographs, these smaller works share the same preoccupation: presence at the moment of fading. Figures that are almost there, almost gone.

The threshold between the visible and the invisible has always been his subject.

born 1963 in Bad Säckingen
lives and works in Berlin
1986 - 93 Art Academy Düsseldorf, free painting
from 91 Master student with Prof. Michael Buthe
1993 Scholarship from the Offenburg Cultural Foundation
1994 Winner of the “Contemporary Art in the Ortenau” award
2008 Working stay in Sicily
2009 Working stay in Greece
2010 Working stay in India
2012 Working stay in India

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2008 “repeat after me”, Studio W12, Berlin
2009 “ Abstraction or happy moments of an archivist”, Studio W12, Berlin
2010 “until the last shirt”, Studio W12, Berlin
2012 Exhibition of works, Alte Brennerei Schloss Genshagen, Genshagen

Group exhibitions (selection)

2000 “The century in the view of the collection, TOTALE 03”
Museum for New Art, Freiburg i. Br.
2001 “Belle de Jour”, Aachen
2007 “Sept” Espace Surplus, Berlin