Artists in their studios: Pablo Bronstein

Pablo Bronstein is known for his drawings of imaginary buildings, meticulously rendered in pen and ink, alongside installations and sculptures and choreographed performances – all of which spin on the axis of architecture. When he was 16, he decorated his bedroom in the north London suburb of Neasden to look like a Baroque palazzo. The walls were painted with ornate columns, a ceiling rose was added and he carefully selected junk-shop pieces to complete the look.

Pablo’s current home is indebted to this adolescent foray. Located in Deal on the east coast of Kent, the house, he says, is an extension of his work, ‘It spews out from my fingers.’ Little by little, he and his partner Leo Boix have transformed what was a run-of-the-mill holiday home into a fabulous Baroque extravaganza. It is a trompe l’oeil of sorts. Pablo is not hung up on authenticity and, as such, pieces of 17th- and 18th-century furniture muddle along together. ‘It was all plasterboard and Habitat before,’ he says. ‘Now everything is hokey and strange.’ But this does a disservice to what he has created – the house is a testament to his impeccable eye. He describes the process of collecting as something greater than straightforward accumulation: ‘I’m assuming there’s a part of me that’s out there in the world and I’m bringing it back. I’m communicating with some aspect of my past or some distant experience.’

His studio, which is on the first floor at the front of the house, snatches views across to the sea. Pablo has always worked from home, with little need for much beyond a table, a chair and his materials. He is surrounded by piles of books, including antiquarian tomes, a fine collection of silver sugar pots and a cup of mate – the traditional South American herbal tea that powers Pablo, who was born in Argentina, through his day. The combination is extravagant and impressive without being remotely po-faced.

A major solo exhibition of Pablo's is opening this month at Sir John Soane's Museum, in which a series of large-scale watercolours present a seductive, ironic vision of hell as a monumental city. A new 30-minute film will accompany the paintings, showing a group of demonic antique dealers performing a masked ballet, suggesting that shopping acts as the height of culture in hell. "This watercolour panorama I've spent the last two years working on is a reinterpretation of the 19th and 20th century glorification of technological and economic advancement," says Pablo. "All depictions of hell are ultimately allegorical, and this cycle fits into that tradition, but it is an ironic vision with the appearance of an early advertising campaign."

Pablo Bronstein is represented by Herald St; heraldst.com. His exhibition Hell in its Heyday is opening at Sir John Soane's Museum on October 6, 2021.