A strange drama unfolds on the wall at HENRI on Gammel Kongevej. Naked human figures sit lost in their own thoughts on small green islands in a blood-red sea. Severed unicorn heads and a tiger sneaking around. On the horizon, something is approaching that bears a striking resemblance to a familiar planet.

 

The work is titled Chaos in the Symbiotic Cosmos and is painted by 20-year-old Copenhagen-based visual artist Kami Luca Maranini. His artistic universe is shaped by childhood visits to museums in Florence, graffiti and an insistence on the relevance of magic in modern society.

 

HENRI sat down with him to talk about art, mythology and his attempt to make room for the spiritual in a world that is constantly accelerating.

 

 

 

Can you tell us about the artwork behind you?

 

Yes, the painting is called Chaos in the Symbiotic Cosmos. It portrays a number of different figures floating around on some islands in a red sea. The islands can be seen as different states of mind, where the figures sit alone, without communicating with one another and gazing around somewhat lonely and lost.

 

The work consists of two paintings that together tell a larger story. I play with the idea that the people on this planet live in symbiosis, but are disturbed by another planet approaching out on the horizon.

 

That planet could very well be Earth, but it could also be something else. I’m trying to explore how our way of living here on Earth might be creating an imbalance in the universe. It’s a kind of caricature of that idea.

 

Why do you paint?

 

Because I can’t help it, and because I have a need to explore parts of my mind that I don’t know, and that I can only get to know by creating a painting or an illustration.

 

I see my paintings as something that comes from my subconscious. Through the images, I can understand myself better, and sometimes they give me answers about how I’m actually feeling.

 

When did your interest in art begin?

 

My father is Italian, and my grandparents live in Florence. Ever since I was very young, I’ve spent months with them, and my grandfather has always been great at taking me around the city’s museums.

 

I think much of my interest in art, religion and mythology grew out of those countless visits, where I encountered the paintings of the Renaissance.

 

When I was 12, I started painting graffiti. It was a way into understanding that I had a genuine need to express myself through all these colors and so on.

 

I also remember watching a documentary when I was very young, featuring an artist talking about his work. I felt a jolt deep in my stomach. I knew that was what I wanted to do: explore and develop my own expression.

 

What was it about Renaissance art that fascinated you?

 

I find it interesting that paintings were once used to tell important stories about politics, religion and how the world was understood. They weren’t simply beautiful objects to hang on a wall. They were also a way of explaining the world people lived in at the time.

 

What happens inside you when a painting captures your attention?

 

What really moves me when I look at art is when there is a sense of mystery. I like there to be something magical about it, something that tells a story beyond the limits of our language.

 

The spoken language is great for explaining all kinds of things, but the visual language can express an entirely different dimension of emotion.

 

What kinds of stories are you trying to create in your work?

 

As I mentioned, I’m very interested in ancient mythologies, religious narratives, wild creatures and fairy tales.

 

And In my artistic universe, I try to create my own mythology, that can contain fragments from other religions and mythologies, which I then reinterpret into my own stories.

 

I like the fact that the images can be both serious and playful. The painting at HENRI, for example, deals with some relatively serious subjects, but there’s also something comical, almost perverse, about the naked figures sitting restlessly and staring into space.

 

I think a lot about what is happening out there in space, and what our purpose being here actually is. What are we doing here? What is our place in the universe?

 

These are the questions I try to explore through my paintings.

 

How do you begin a new painting?

 

It starts with small impressions from everyday life. It could be a word, a sentence, a religious figure or an image that pops into my head. I collect these impressions over a period of time until I feel the urge to bring them to life in an image.

 

It can feel incredibly anxiety-inducing before I get started, because I have no idea what I’m going to paint. I don’t make sketches beforehand. I begin with a few figures doing something, and then I build the universe around them.

 

It’s almost like being God. You become a kind of creator of worlds, because you decide what happens in the image.

 

And then something magical happens. The story begins to unfold all by itself. Sometimes it’s almost like reading your own dreams. I can be completely surprised by how much of what has occupied my thoughts and my life suddenly appears in a painting, without me having consciously tried to bring it out.

 

What is the biggest challenge in your creative process?

 

I suppose it’s the fact that I always start from absolutely nothing. I have no idea where the painting will take me, and I have to trust that it will eventually become something. But once I’ve drawn out the composition, a more meditative process begins, where I fill in the different areas with color.

 

I had enormous difficulty concentrating throughout my school years. But when I paint, I can sit still for days. Suddenly, I realise it’s two in the morning and I haven’t eaten anything. It’s crazy that painting can bring that kind of deep concentration, where I’m drawn into the universe of the painting and almost become part of it.

 

You talk a lot about magic. What does it mean to you?

 

I like the idea that magic exists. The other day, I saw a cat looking at me, and I imagined that perhaps it was God looking at me. It doesn’t really matter whether it was God. What’s interesting is allowing yourself to believe it. Why not look at the world through that lens?

 

I think we live in a world where we’re told that we only have one life, and that we simply have to live and die. That’s why I think it’s important to inject a little magic into our existence.

 

I believe it’s important to make room for the spiritual world. We live in a society that is very occupied with so many other things, and that’s why I want to offer my own take on what magic can be today. A kind of contemporary magic, seen through the eyes of a young man in 2026, who is also on Instagram and lives in the modern world.

 

Because spirituality doesn’t belong exclusively to the prehistoric forest or to the prehistoric humans. It belongs to humanity.