Franky Daubenfeld’s paintings push the boundaries of the familiar, interweaving the eerie with the everyday and inviting us to explore the unknown world in between. His works of art are like stages on which every object plays a role — sometimes visible, sometimes hidden, but always fascinating.
Franky Daubenfeld grew up in the town of Leudelange. A typical Luxembourger ‘Zillennial’, that micro-generation between Millennials and Gen Z, who played team football and went to school, and then abroad to university. Art has always been part of his life: “As a child, I often came second or third in painting competitions. It wasn’t anything special, but it motivated me to keep going.” At school, he also enjoyed acting and was passionate about films. This love of the creative ultimately led him to study for a degree in art. It was in particular his time in Henning Bohl’s class in Vienna that made him decide to pursue a career as an artist: “My dream is still to be able to make a living from my art. I don’t have high expectations, I just want to be able to do what I love.”
Mysterious Relics
Franky positions his motifs against a background of sepia tones, interspersed with warm, dark purple and red tones. They resemble still lifes, but are in fact objects whose purpose and meaning are obscure. Franky’s latest paintings explore the unknown, and yet familiar, the subconscious and the mysterious and eerie. The writings of cultural theorist Mark Fisher were a major inspiration for him: “In ‘The Weird and the Eerie’, for example, Fisher describes artefacts from science fiction novels as ‘inorganic artefacts; objects whose purpose and meaning remain unclear’. This gives them the status of a fetish or relic,” he explains. “It’s this that sparked my interest in exploring and developing the visual language of such objects.” He uses everyday objects as models, which he first seeks out and then puts on show: “I’m always on the lookout for interesting objects — and so you could say that I’m always working. First, I photograph the objects I find and then I sketch them. This process helps me decide whether the object in question has any artistic potential. It’s a bit like casting them for a film or theatre show.”
An Artistic Enterprise
At almost 30 years of age, Franky is still at the start of his career. Yet, this enterprising artist has already showcased his work at a number of national and international exhi- bitions, with some considerable success. Last year, he not only exhibited at the third edition of Young Luxembourgish Artists, but also took first place in the group exhibition for young artists at the third Art Biennial in Vianden. The prize was a three-week residency at the town’s art gallery, from 28 July to 18 August. “The residency in Vianden was an amazing opportunity,” enthuses Franky. “I particularly liked the fact that I was given complete artistic freedom. I love experimenting — when I get that blank canvas, I’m like a kid in a candy shop.”
Being able to focus solely on being creative is, however, a luxury for artists these days: “Artists today have to be business-savvy. They have to dedicate time and effort to marketing, selling and shipping their work, maintaining a presence on social media and much more.” And yet there’s nothing else in the world that Franky would rather do. “In an increasingly cold and calculated world, art has always saved me from going crazy. It brings me much joy and fulfilment; it’s my purpose in life,” he says. “I think absolutely everybody, without exception, can benefit from being creative, in whatever shape or form that may be.”
