Ronewa Art Projects and SAC Gallery present Hold on to That Paper Again, an exhibition of recent works by Swiss-Tibetan artist Tashi Brauen. Opening on April 8, 2021, the solo show brings together two series of works on paper, united by Brauen’s mark-making interventions that master a fine balance between intentional actions and spontaneous forms. A press conference will be held on April 22, followed by a public reception on April 23.
Brauen engages his everyday materials in a back and forth conversation, testing their response to his subtle manipulations. His sculptural approach to paper interrogates the physical quality of its surface and structure. For his Cracks series, Brauen paints vibrant color fields that become intersected with the textured lines of the paper’s broken surface as he bends and folds it. Some of these fractures appear like bolts of lightning tearing through the colored surface to the paper beneath, while others are soft creases warping the flat surfaces into a gentle relief.
The Du series was born out of strict coronavirus restrictions in early 2020, where Brauen experimented with materials he found in his Zurich studio. Du magazine has been a leading art and culture periodical in Switzerland since the 1940s. Brauen, who grew up with the magazine and collects it himself, repurposes its pages for his colorful symmetrical print experiments where opaque forms obscure text and image in unique relationships. In this dynamic, the magazine pages are simultaneously cultural artifacts and flat paper surfaces. Brauen’s primitive printing technique calls on the balancing act of control and chance seen across his practice. He sets the parameters of his process and guides his materials with familiarity, though every line or shape is unique and unpredictable.
Brauen’s new series of 19 Crack works and 16 recent Du works are on view in Bangkok at SAC Gallery from April 8 to May 22, 2021. Concurrently, Ronewa Art Projects presents a parallel online exhibition featuring the same curation of works and insightful context for Brauen’s practice in the Ronewa online viewing room.
Brauen lives in Zurich, Switzerland, and has exhibited internationally, including solo shows in Zurich, Berlin, Munich, and Bangkok. His practice returns to Bangkok after exhibiting his sculptural paper wall reliefs and photographic studies of paper objects at the Serindia Gallery in 2016. The same year, Brauen created a large-scale sculptural installation at the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangkok. His works are held in private collections worldwide and Swiss public collections, including Canton of Zurich, Canton of Berne, and Wettingen Art Collection.
With special thanks to SAC Gallery and the Embassy of Switzerland in Thailand.
