Ramon Kubicek
The Whirling of Worlds Never Stops
Acrylic, oil, pen on canvas 26″x26″ 2020
Green is Not Just a Color
Acrylic, oil stick, pen on canvas 30″x40″ 2019
Hidden In The Forest
Acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, pen on canvas 24″x36″ 2020
The Soft Decent of All Our Losses
Acrylic, inks, oil pastel, pen on canvas 24″x36″ 2019
Vividness of Seeds in Darkness
Acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, pen on canvas 18″x36″ 2019
Many Worlds
Acrylic, oil, oil pastel, pen on canvas 24″x24″ 2020
One Minute a Mountain, Then a Path,
Always a Tree
Acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, on canvas 30″x40″ 2015
The Falling Petals
Acrylic, oil stick, pen on canvas 36″x36″ 2020
Day After Day
Acrylic, oil pastel on canvas 24″x36″ 2017
Artist’s Statement
All of my work, which ranges across diverse media and approaches, is informed by three ideas. First is the notion of Unity, that in the plenitude, difference, and complexity of life, the underlying principle is unity. Humanity shares an essence that is connected to the Divine, though we may be in different stages of awareness, feeling, and need. But not just humanity—all life is connected on some level, from the microbial and cellular to the mammals that explore their environments with keen interest. Moments of discovery and vision are celebrated in my work.
Secondly, is the idea of journey. I relate to travel and exploration on all levels. I also happen to believe that human beings are on a journey, different kinds and lengths of journey in fact, though at the end all journeys are the same length.
This kind of idea is close to platitude. To avoid that fate, I look to the particular and the specific, so that the journey is grounded in details we can appreciate, and it becomes an inference and an invitation rather than a slogan. For example, in an unfinished painting I am currently working on, Columbus’ journey to the Americas is a journey of discovery, but only when it is understood in the contextual particulars of imperialism, trade, ideas about exoticism, anti-Semitism, and Catholicism, does the journey come to life for me.
Thirdly, my work is about sensuousness. That is, as much as my paintings communicate ideas, they do so through an appreciation of the senses. Colour, texture, balance are very much ideas we can understand with the body. I use bolder colours than are sometimes acceptable in order to push the felt notion of energy and life.
Ramon Kubicek
Curriculum Vitae
Summary
My professional life has been focused on creativity and teaching. After studying literature, visual art, and film in Montreal, I traveled through Europe and North Africa, and decided to study art in England. A few years later I moved to Vancouver and went into full-time teaching at Langara College and Emily Carr University.
Influences
From a very early age, I loved the work of Brueghel, Durer, and Bosch, and the illustrations of Gustave Dore. My second set of influences came from Sufi arabesques, Taoist landscapes, Byzantine mosaics, as well as the paintings of Jack Wise and Mark Tobey, who were masterful abstract artists painting in a calligraphic style. Contemporary artists I admire include Anselm Kiefer and Bharti Kher.
Recent Solo Exhibitions
2015 Jul. “Bees of The Invisible” – eighteen paintings at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, Gibsons, BC.
2015 Nov. “13 Ways of looking at a Seascape with a Crow” – Havana Gallery, Vancouver, BC.
2016 Apr. “The Lure of the Sea” – Green Chair Gallery, Canterbury, England.
2017 Jan. “A Crack in Everything God Has Made” – Foyer Gallery, Squamish, BC.
2017 Sep. “Not This, Not That,” – The Gumboot, Roberts Creek, BC.
2018 Aug. Three paintings in Group Show, “Unity in Diversity”, Messe Freiburg, Germany.
2018 Deep in Cascadia. Poetics Retreat. Abbey Studio. Cumberland, BC.
Recent Reviews
https://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/columnists/column-complex-vs-clear-cut-1.7156398
https://www.coastreporter.net/entertainment/arts-entertainment/bees-of-the-invisible-1.2010092
Not So Recent Awards
1994 Rockefeller FlowFund Award for art work dedicated to water and ecology.
2000 Carfac Award for art and healing.
Publication
Co-author One Source: Sacred Journeys. Markowitz Publishing. 1997.
Employment History
1997 – 2017. Instructor, part-time. Emily Carr University of Art & Design. Vancouver, BC.
1992 – 2015. Instructor, Interdisciplinary Studies, Full time, Langara College, Vancouver, BC.
