Interview: Gís Marí
Luca Curci talks with Gís Marí for the WINNERS of the ARTIST OF THE MONTH – AUGUST 2024.

Born in the Netherlands and based in Portugal, Gís Marí [born Gijs Maris in Haarlem, 1991] paints large-scale, abstract, expressionistic oil paintings. He was drawn into the world of painting during his study of psychology in Leiden. His apartment and its white walls increasingly served as an atelier, and instead of preparing for his exams, he was occupied with the arts. In his early 20s, he quit university to devote his life entirely to painting. Gís Marí rented his first atelier in Amsterdam [NDSM Wharf], where he worked for 2 years. His increasing discomfort with the gentrifying, speedy and money-driven Amsterdam saw him move to southern Europe, where he fell in love with the city of Porto. He rented an abandoned industrial store in central Porto, which served as an atelier and house, and he worked here for four intense years. In 2019 he moved to an old rice warehouse in the port town of Figueira da Foz, where he currently lives and works. In modern times, where quantity and efficiency prevail over quality, Gís Marí believes in old-world values. He works on a painting for many months and up to years. After constant conversation with the painting, he only puts his signature under his best work and destroys the rest.

What I try to convey with my painting is energy. For me, art is about stimulating whatever is in the beholder. One can burst into tears, scream for happiness, laugh or experience any other emotion. If one is, after encountering my work, a bit different than what they were before, I am satisfied. I see myself as a messenger travelling between two worlds: from my own “inner” world to the “common” world and back, see it as the character from Greek mythology, Hermes. I pick the flowers from my unique, inner world and translate them via a comprehensible medium to the outer world. The longer the journey, the more unique the flower and, therefore, the artwork. This explains why I work on a painting for a long period, in lucid concentration, and often in solitary periods.

My biggest inspiration is – besides reading, interacting with other humans and observing society- without any doubt: Nature. On the entrance of the Amsterdam Zoo, where I used to go as a child, is written in big letters “Natura Artis Magistra”. This is Latin for ‘nature is the teacher of art’, and I could not agree more. As an artist, I put myself in the footsteps of the all-embracing piece of art created by Mother Nature. For instance, look at the complex symmetry of a snail shell, better than a Mondrian. See the tension in the claw of an eagle, the most powerful Franz Kline; observe a bright, red berry against a green leaf; two strong complementary colours invented by Mother Nature long before Goethe or Johannes Itten wrote about them. And I could go on forever.

Signing a painting for me is like cutting the naval cord; the painting is born. As a parent I can solely support it by giving it a title, writing poems on the backside, using the best materials, and conserving it in the best way possible. However, the fact that I am the painter is, for me, of secondary importance, just like the parents of a human being are to define the child. The painting now has to deal with the world and its spectators. I gave all that I could.

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
Gís Marí – I was brought up around art; my father is an art dealer, so I grew up surrounded with paintings and developed an intuitive understanding and respect for art. As a young boy, I was fascinated by the fact that the artist, who I could not see physically, could still infuse their energy into the painting. They could invest the painting with a personality that decades or even centuries later could speak to viewers like me, bringing them to joy or tears or causing them to reflect. This mysterious element of art, where the work remains independent of its creator, is something that I still see as magical today. After quitting my studies in psychology, I rented my first atelier in Amsterdam; it was an old shack at the NDSM wharf – the raw, industrial part of Amsterdam. Because I am autodidactic, I had no technique to rely on; it was trial and error, experimenting with the structure of the paint and the interaction between the paint and the canvas. I spent endless days experimenting and learning. Eventually, by working with various materials and in different locations, I became more confident and developed my own style.

LC – Which subject are you working on?
GM – Currently, I am fascinated by capturing the energy of rivers and oceans and trying to convey that through a series of paintings. My atelier is a 5-minute walk from the ocean, and my apartment has a view of the Mondego River, so I am often around water. I am captivated by the visual energy a wave conveys when crashing into the ocean, the ever-changing reflections of the water when the sun shines on it, and the energy the ocean has during different tides, under various weather conditions and at different times of the day. The ocean is always in flux. Additionally, as I live close to the river mouth, I can sit and observe for hours the place where the sweet water of the river meets the salt water of the ocean. It is where the ocean embraces the river, where two different entities come together and become one. It is a fascinating phenomenon.

LC – Is there an unrealised or unrealisable project, even a crazy one, that you would like to work on?
GM – Making an 828-meter-high painting and hanging it on the façade of the highest building in the world so that the whole city can enjoy it and the painting can kiss the sky.

LC – What are the three hashtags essential to define your poetics that you could not give up?
GM – Nature, Energy, Profoundness

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
GM – In interaction with different kinds of people, travelling, visiting museums, reading books, listening to music and most importantly, observing Mother Nature. As explained earlier, not only in the presence of a river and an ocean but also in the beautiful shapes and colour combination mother nature creates. From the bright, red dot on the yellow beak of a seagull to the ultramarine blue of an iris flower with its cadmium yellow heart. From the powerful, aggressive shape of the feet of a crow to the consoling, endless labyrinth of an oak tree branch. Everywhere in nature, there is inspiration to be found.