Mihail Korubin

Mihail Korubin is a visual artist and painter born in Skopje in 1986. His practice moves between figurative painting, abstraction, symbolism and the development of Artokens—an original visual language in which words, ideas and experiences are transformed into geometric symbols.

Born into a family of artists, Korubin represents the third generation of visual artists in his family, following his grandfather, painter Mile Korubin, and his father, artist Rubens Korubin. Growing up in his father’s studio gave him an early and intimate relationship with painting, drawing, color and the physical process of making art. He later studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje, where he also completed his Master’s degree under Professor Blagoja Manevski.

Korubin’s painting has evolved through a continuing dialogue between the figurative and the abstract. Portraits and the human figure have long been central to his work, often existing within expressive fields of color where figure and background begin to merge. Memory, emotion, perception and psychological presence recur throughout his practice, while abstraction increasingly operates not simply as a background but as an active part of the image. His own description of this development emphasizes inspiration, imagination and memory rather than the pursuit of a predetermined style. 

This exploration of reduction, meaning and visual perception eventually expanded beyond painting into Artokens, a visual language created by Korubin. Artokens translate words and ideas into minimal geometric constructions using straight lines, circles, equilateral triangles and hexagons, with arrows and dots functioning as additional accents or grammatical markers. Each symbol seeks to reduce an idea to a recognizable visual essence while remaining part of a larger structured vocabulary. 

Artokens exist both as individual artworks and as a developing system of visual communication. The project encompasses Primary Artokens, which form the minimal, monochromatic foundation of the writing system, and Supreme Artokens, more complex and expressive interpretations reserved for selected words with particular significance. Through this evolving language, Korubin extends questions already present in his paintings—how emotion, memory and meaning can be communicated visually—into a system where image, symbol and language intersect. 

In 2023, Korubin presented the solo exhibition Visual Articulation at Čifte Hammam in Skopje. In 2025, he presented Artokens, together with works from the Artokens Genesis series and the promotion of Artokens Book — Volume One, at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje. The book documents the origins, structure and rules of the Artokens universe and introduces its Supreme and essential Primary symbols.

Today, Korubin’s practice continues across painting, drawing and Artokens, connecting the intuitive language of painting with the structured possibilities of signs and symbols. Across these different forms, the underlying investigation remains connected: how complex human experiences, emotions and ideas can be articulated through visual form.