Strange Worlds

Thirty-year-old, Paris-born Kevin Lucbert is an artist/illustrator who currently makes his home in Berlin. This series of drawings, using the simple Bic pen as his medium, reflect his interests in twisting perspectives into his private, fictional worlds. Patterns emerge from what feels like a free-form exercise—strangely familiar patterns many of us might have stumbled upon while doodling in the margins of a notebook. But make no mistake, Lucbert’s patterning work, in tandem with the drawing, activates the page for the viewer.

This is a world where houses float, or a forest of trees become curtains pulled back to reveal another world. At times, I see traces of the outsider artist Joseph Yoakum (1886–1972)—but only as a reference point in my understanding these complex and obsessive drawings.Â

Suburban landscapes are another matter. Drawn in isometric perspective, they are largely devoid of people, though they occasionally illustrate soulless characters in the greater event around them. Lucbert uses his storytelling talent in the limited edition book Mountain Fire, where the charred remains of burned trees and strange constructions go border-to-border, without the benefit of words or clear-cut narrative.Â

As a counterpoint to his obsessive ballpoint pen drawings are his carnets de croquis, or sketchbooks. Here, Lucbert displays his talent to draw the world as it exists, with bright, loose watercolor and pen.Â

Lucbert receive his diploma from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (Ensad) in Paris in 1986. See more of Lucbert’s work on his Tumblr.