Josua Kerkis

About the Artist

(b. 1998)

“There is something definitive in this arrangement of drawing the near very near, so that the distance may be alone with itself. What is close by means much, and the infinite in this way becomes singularly clear, free of meaning, a pure depth, an inexhaustible stor of spiritually usable interspace” (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Josua Kerkis paints Rilke’s finished still life, where meaning lives on its surface. In his mind’s eye, Kerkis sees an empty room, into which he brings everything easy from the world, because even that is difficult to get to know. Maybe things he would take with him from a burning house. Someone could have bought it for him. If he can’t afford it, Kerkis paints it on the walls of his room. In his room, he suffocates shadows and gives juice to vampires.

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Exhibitions

Kuvan Kevät 2026

15.5.-14.6.2026