Marliek

I draw city people. On public transport, at gatherings, sitting on terraces or while shopping, on the street or indoors. The city people move and mingle into crowdscapes. Their sounds transform into hands and feet, their scents become colors, movements shift into shadows and scratches, details are magnified, and perspectives are distorted. 

My work is expressionistic. I translate the impressions that people and crowds leave on me into drawings. My creations depict the bustling of a city from a distorted, subjective perspective. The result is often alienating and lacks a clear focus.

My work always begins with observation. I create live sketches of what I see and experience, whether traveling by train or attending a festival. I also take photos of people in crowds. These sketches and photos serve as the foundation for further development in the studio, resulting in all kinds of 2D or 3D forms: small drawings, large mixed media drawings and paintings, dioramas, wall reliefs of cut-out drawings, or three-dimensional paper sculptures. 

The crowdscapes show the raw, busy city life that we all recognize: crowded metros and bulging trains, people packed together without truly connecting, often dressed in street clothes, hoodies, sneakers and backpacks. For me, drawing and transforming my impressions of city people and busy city life is a way to cope with this existence. By presenting this work, I also return this impression to the viewer, confronting them with an image of their own daily life, which may be very familiar to some.

I find it intriguing to present my work in (semi) public spaces, where not only art enthusiasts but also casual passers-by encounter my crowdscapes.