Basketball is an infinite composition of instants and a stream of sensations. It is a universal and cosmopolitan language, where forms always seem to resemble each other, but their meanings change from city to city. Filipp Jenikäe’s art follows this paradigm, elevating it in the creation of pieces that find order in chaos. They are mosaics of stories, environments, times and spaces that, often, revolve around the sports imagery and its greatest icons.

Sports is a crossroads of experiences and emotions, explains this German creative, born in art and raised in the Game. And if basketball is life, as many argue, Filipp Jenikäe’s life can only be told play by play. We listen to his testimony from past to future, discovering the intermingling of art, basketball and sports imagery in his existential flow.

FIRST QUARTER – ARTS EDUCATION RHYMES WITH BASKETBALL EDUCATION

“I was born Münster, on the border between Germany and Holland. My mother studied art and was always an excellent painter; she stopped pursuing this career when my siblings and I were born. I have always been interested in this creative universe, but I started painting late, when I was 27/28 years old. Growing up I always appreciated the artistic beauty and made many friends in the local graffiti scene. They organized groups and traveled to other cities, meeting other people. I liked that. It felt like traveling with a basketball team – my first great love.”

“At first I was interested in football, and my uncle and father have always been big sports fans in general. I remember watching the World Cup with the whole family, I was fascinated by it. Then basketball came into my life, thanks to my neighbors. They were three brothers who were older than me and were involved in basketball camps. It was a new thing at the time. They showed me NBA videos and I never went back. We played every day. I was captivated by the power of basketball imagery: the NBA logo, the Dream Team, the growing fame of a phenomenon that was going to become global…. In Germany we had an icon like Dirk Nowitzki. Before him there had been Detlef Schrempf, but Nowitzki was a different kind of player with his shooting form – the flamingo jumper… I saw him beat the Heat’s Big Three, James-Wade-Bosh, and he was fantastic. To this day he is still a great ambassador for Germany and basketball in general.”

SECOND QUARTER – THE FASCINATION WITH SPORTS ICONS, AND ASPHALT

“I discovered my drive for art while living in Berlin, it was around 2017. Berlin is a unique city from an artistic point of view, you are surrounded by DJs, documentary filmmakers, photographers…. The Berlin mindset and input has few comparisons. I wanted to buy a print for my new apartment, I looked at a David Hockney piece, a British landscape, but it was very expensive. So I told myself I could try to paint something myself. I started and, like basketball, I fell in love with painting. I was painting all the time. Instagram then helped the spread of my art, it’s the platform that allowed it to reach more and more people. Sports icons became part of my art in a natural way. In my vision they are modern heroes, reaching their destinations through effort and discipline…. I am impressed by these personalities. When I paint them I always think back to the 19th or 20th century, when people used to display pictures of war heroes e.g.. Sports icons also help you find an audience. Even people who are not interested in art buy my paintings because they are fans of Djokovic or Jordan. Legendary athletes touch people’s heartstrings. And some people would rather have a painting than a picture, because it’s like slow food, or a vinyl.”

“Basketball creates intersections with so many different cultures and arts. I’m talking for example about hip hop or pop art…. And it connects with urban landscapes. I’m very interested in street basketball culture. I tried to become a really good player, but I was stopped by a lack of talent, a chaotic lifestyle and a lot of physical problems. Still I spent so much of my life in playgrounds and open gyms, becoming a streetballer. Until recently I played 3, 4 times a week. I have been fortunate to travel a lot and live in many cities, I always thought there was a relationship between exploring these cities and basketball culture. When you grow up seeing so many games, it’s like you already know the soul of some cities…. When you get really interested in basketball, it opens so many doors of your knowledge.”

THIRD QUARTER – PASSIONS ARE ENDLESS, LIKE ARTISTIC EVOLUTION

“I live my artistic process like DJ sampling. I get inspired by the art books I have at home, by the cities I am lucky enough to visit. For example, I studied sociology and political science in Barcelona, there I was surrounded by art. Miro, Picasso, the local architecture…. I absorbed the vibes of the city by walking down the streets. I was fascinated by people’s shapes and urban settings. I think this kind of sensibility evolves by traveling a lot and training your attention to detail. I choose sports celebrities based on events I see and suggestions from my friends. The input of a boxer friend led me to paint Ngannou and Fury. Another friend sent me a picture of Federer in flight; he looked like a basketball player to me…. And I painted him. I also love tennis courts, their geometries, and I am getting into the aesthetics of golf, with its endless shades of green. These are all pieces of hypothetical mosaics. I select these elements and put them together, using my own style. I see the compositions in my mind and then tweak them if there is something I don’t like, getting to the final result. To date, I don’t want to give interpretations to my paintings, I am still shaping my style. I find it a bit ‘tricky’ when an artist interprets his/her own art.”

“Now my relationship with basketball is not as steady. Over time I pushed my body and now I’m paying the price a little bit. In the last few years I have realized the importance of eating and living well. As long as you are young, everything works wonderfully. Then you find yourself at 38 years old and you think that you won’t be able to play basketball at the same level as before…. But I still have so many basketball videos to watch and photos that can inspire me…. I have hundreds of shots of MJ, they look like Renaissance paintings, and I want to work on them. I feel there are still so many players and nuances of the Game that can inspire my art.”

FOURTH QUARTER – THE FUTURE IS A RATIONAL EXPLORATION

“I’m really happy with my job. I don’t like some parts of the art business, and sometimes it’s hard to just paint what you want when you know you have to sell in order to support your family.  While selling copies of my artworks I like the idea that my work can find a place in different parts of the world. In the near future I will be traveling again, looking for inspiration in Thailand, staying in Bangkok paint more and more and improve in every way. I would like to keep visiting and painting different parts of the world, new arenas, fields and sports icons. And of course I want to find a way to have a family at the same time. My daughter is in school, so I have to find a right balance between my global journey and personal life.”