Everything you need to know about Super Future Kid

Spanning multiple mediums, SFK's work is a celebration of gleeful silliness and childlike naïvety which also examines the chaos in derivative culture; as the artist forces upon us mass motif consumption in the form of 1980s cult cartoons, animals riding bikes and astronauts.

   

You're super hot in the art world right now. How did this happen?

I dont know, I just make my work and people seem to like it, which makes me really happy!

 

How did the name 'Super Future Kid' come about?

Its just a name, I like the 3 words and they seem to work well together. Its also a kind of paradox and a mini manifesto. It's paradoxical as most of my imagery has something nostalgic about it as they are things from my childhood, things from the 80s and early 90s. So basically it's stuff I noticed as a kid, made (from the perspective of my childhood self) in the Future.

 

Tomato Team by Super Future Kid

   

Describe your artistic style in 3 words

Fun (3 letters!)

 

What's an average day consist of for you?

Waking up without alarm clock, having Breakfast at 1pm or 2pm whilst staring at work I have in progress and thinking what to do with it. Writing some emails, getting started with painting, in between lots of tea, more painting, from time to time going through printed images, sorting ideas, again painting. Around midnight its time for dinner and watching my favourite programs on netflix (stuff like spongebob, star treck, Fringe etc.), afterwards maybe going back to paint a little more, then bed time at around 5am.

Jurassic Weiner by Super Future Kid

How do you start a new painting? Is it like a look book process with lots of magazine and & collage images?

No I don't use sketchbooks or look books or things like that. I have different ways of starting. Mostly the ideas for new paintings come from previous works that I’ve done, I often find something in them that triggers new ideas. I never really think about the initial process as I usually just do it, playing around with images, colours, compositions.

 

Tell us a bit about your collaboration with Phillip Normal?

It was a fun small project and the first time we worked together. He is amazing and does all these crazy clothes, I think the way he makes them is somehow related to the way that I make my paintings. We sort of spontaneously decided to do a collaborative project, I designed some prints for him on a big roll of jersey and he did with it what he does best, making fabulous clothes.

 

What significance did going to Art school have on your work?

None actually, I started doing the kind of work that I do now several (2 or 3) years after leaving art school. 

Ring a Ring o' Roses by Super Future Kid

What is your favourite cult cartoon?

Calvin and Hobbes

 

What's the most important tense in your work: past, present, future?

All of them. Time is strange. When I work I don't even notice it as it flies by. I paint things from my past which is happening in the present and the end result, the painting, will still be looked at in the future

Sexy Breakfast by Super Future Kid

 

What images in your work can be categorised as particularly Western and which Eastern? 

Categories are often subjective, and what's East and whats Eest anyway? I like to implement what ever comes along and hits me in one way or another.

 

Bearded Disk by Super Future Kid

 

What's the main difference between the culture in Berlin and the culture in London for you?

I love London, I could never say that about Berlin for some reason. They are sort of very different in my eye but I couldn’t tell you why exactly. They just feel different.

Is the imagery in your work arbitrary or do you intend each image to work together semantically?

The imagery I use always has a connection. Everything is connected you just need to find a link.

Encounter at Farpoint by Super Future Kid

 

With recurring characters and similar colour schemes, do you think your Art works better visually as a collection?

It happens quite often that people buy several of my pieces and I am happy about that as they always belong to each other. 

If you had to choose, would you say your Art would fit best in: an exotic jungle of magic & trash, a home which focuses on decadent glamour, an industrial/warehouse setting, as a statement piece in a minimal home?

The work is made in an industrial warehouse space, so that works well already. But in general I think my work and its environment always form a sort of bond where one steadily influences the other.