Artist
Emil Urbanek
Born 2000 in Berlin, lives and works in Berlin
Emil Urbanek paints in graphite, casein, ink, acrylic and oil on canvas, building blurred, grainy surfaces that recall long-exposure photography and colourised black-and-white prints. Their paintings borrow from vanitas still life: vases, flowers, pears, shoulders and arms sit close together in obscure moments of intimacy, held in a strange calm. Recurring motifs carry personal meaning. The bush is a hiding place and a store for memories of an alternate self left behind; the pear, odd-shaped and more sensitive than the apple, stands for queer life in a heteronormative world and for bodily autonomy. Urbanek treats vanitas as a moment between life and death, where figures, objects and plants lean on one another and the edges of the canvas suggest scenes beyond the frame.
Exhibitions
Art fair
Art Düsseldorf 2026 Emil Urbanek17–19 April 2026
Duo exhibition
fühlen 3000 Bella Bram and Emil Urbanek23 January – 28 February 2026
Art fair
POSITIONS Art Fair Berlin 202412–15 September 2024
Solo exhibition
Some flowers, some stems Emil Urbanek25 April – 1 June 2024
Art fair
POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair Emil Urbanek, Georg Haberler and Jung A Lee14–17 September 2023
Solo exhibition
In Pears Emil Urbanek23 March – 15 April 2023
Group exhibition
Future Solos Group Show14 September – 14 October 2022
