Dennis Schikora (b. 2000, Germany) is an abstract painter who lives and works in Berlin. His work addresses impermanence and vulnerability, informed by a personal awareness of mortality and the provisional nature of aesthetic judgments.

An early engagement with avant-garde artisanal fashion shaped his affinity for deconstruction, asymmetry and materiality. Literature later helped him articulate this sensibility in relation to finitude and aesthetic value.

Working primarily in oil on raw, unprimed fabric, he also uses oil sticks, pastels, diluted pigment, organic debris and industrial residues. His practice prioritises experimentation over resolution. Repeated overpainting allows earlier decisions and corrections to remain visible. Cracks, stains and material changes contribute to surfaces that retain evidence of their making, with formal tensions left unresolved.

Schikora’s interest in recontextualisation concerns how setting, presentation and cultural expectations shape the perception of materials and their aesthetic value. Materials associated with damage, use or waste acquire different significance within a painting. These shifts raise questions about the stability of the criteria through which something is considered beautiful, damaged or valuable.