NATHANAELLE HERBELIN
Name: Rabin Huissen
Birthplace: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Home: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Disciplines: Photography, drawing, painting and installation
Câlin, 2021, oil on canvas, courtesy of the artist and Jousse Entreprise Gallery
What is the story behind your work?
I like to think that my work restarts every day in order to forever evolve. I studied painting with different Russian teachers in Israel where I grew up. In 2012, I arrived in Paris and entered the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts - it was my dream to study and paint there! At the end of my studies, I started working with Philippe Jousse and Sophie Vigourous at the Jousse Entreprise Gallery. Today, I work between my Parisian studio and Tel Aviv.
Which topics does your work focus on?
All kinds of timeless issues: home, loneliness, love, friendship, post-war trauma, random encounters... I use landscapes, portraits and still life to illustrate those feelings. For example, I find the Negev desert in Israel very expressive. Also, an empty bedroom is usually quite explicit sentimentally and I can pick it up just the way it is and use it for my paintings. Everything that provokes an emotion for me is paintable and more than that - everything can become a painting if I give it an emotion. I feel really free and full of energy when I can try to paint everything I see, it is challenging to make a good painting out of whatever.
Why did you choose painting as your main artistic language?
Because I believe it is one of the most profound, rich, communicative and complex art forms I know. I feel like I can dig into it endlessly.
What influences this language?
Lately, I’ve been trying to consciously imitate the aesthetics of ancient fresco painting. I also spend a lot of time painting figures from observation to include the sensation of a precise, condensed and instant time frame.
What do you want to achieve?
Identification.