Weserhalle

Artist

Emil Urbanek

Born 2000 in Berlin, lives and works in Berlin

Emil Urbanek

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

Works

appear, 2026

Graphite, Kasein & Acrylic on Canvas · 60 × 70 cm

one, 2026

Graphite, Ink & Acrylic on Canvas · 40 × 35 cm

two, 2026

Graphite, Ink & Acrylic on Canvas · 40 × 35 cm

ate, 2025

Graphite, Ink, Acrylic on Canvas · 43 × 46 cm

for, 2025

Graphite, Ink & Acrylic on Canvas · 43 × 46 cm

okay, 2024

Ink, Graphite and Acrylic on Canvas · 70 × 87 cm

some, 2024

Ink, Graphite and Acrylic on Canvas · 70 × 87 cm

t, 2024

Ink, Graphite and Acrylic on Canvas · 70 × 87 cm

rest, 2023

Casein, Oil and Dammar on Wood · 20 × 15 cm

Tear, 2022

Graphite, Casein, Pigments on Canvas · 60 × 53 cm

Editions

geduldspiel llll, 2025 Emil Urbanek geduldspiel llll, 2025 €260 incl. VAT, plus shipping four in furr, 2025 Emil Urbanek four in furr, 2025 €260 incl. VAT, plus shipping

Press