Maarten Demmink

Demiak is the pseudonym of Maarten Demmink. From his early to his most recent artworks, his art oscillates from heavenly to post-apocalyptic pictures or objects in different mediums: paintings, mural wood sculptures, mixed media and staged photographs.

Demiak works in series. In “Dreamland" (2002-2008), he paints with vivid details weightlessness landscapes - transposed in blue skies - that defy laws of nature. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 inspired him docufiction photographs called “The Deepwater horizon".

In the “Big Blow" series, he depicts the aftermath of great climate imbalances, like the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, the great Mississippi Flood in 1927, the Hurricane Katrina in 2005… These flood paintings look like aged and damaged photographs. By the use of small-size formats to avoid sensationalism, Demiak offers a representation of devastated cities in a more intimate way. As if they were historical relics or memento mori on a global scale that suggest the hidden beauty in chaos.

Influenced by Old Masters like Piero della Francesca, Hieronymus Bosch and Leonardo da Vinci, he revisits the genres of landscape and historical painting in the light of contemporary concerns about environmentalism. Demiak's powerful vedute offer a fascinating reflection about the excess of nature and industry.