Robert Brambora at Sans titre (2016)

Artist: Robert Brambora

Exhibition title: Outro

Venue: Sans titre (2016), Milan, Italy

Date: March 30 – April 8, 2022

Photography: Mario Zanaria / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Sans titre (2016), Paris

Accompanying its participation in Milan’s Miart fair, Sans titre (2016) presents “Outro,” Robert Brambora’s first solo exhibition in Italy, and the occasion of the release of his new monograph, published by Motto Books. “Outro” includes a selection of works featured in the monograph, as well as a new series of paintings on wood. The exhibition also contains a series of ceramic works produced with the artist’s signature copper glaze.

The last image or scene of a film, or the concluding section of a piece of music, the outro can suggest a radically different understanding of the preceding experience, leaving a viewer puzzled or conflicted.

Brambora’s “Outro” contrasts images extracted from daily life with scenes of dramatic and striking world news, such as the recent wildfires in Australia and California. In his series of paintings on wood, Brambora depicts apocalyptic landscapes in chiaroscuro, with allusions to the science fiction of Cormac McCarthy and Frank Herbert. The headlights of cars flee scenes of desolation; bright billboards deliver no message.

Other works portray the peaceful face of a girl at rest, or a kiss between two unknown characters. The artist captures moments of stillness, divorced from the context of time or place. An unreal feeling pervades Brambora’s paintings, evoking loneliness, solitude, boredom.

Brambora’s immersive installations invite viewers to navigate the intimacy of a living space, or an abandoned site reconstructed by the artist. His environments are meager and poor, reduced to the bare minimum, existentialist reflections on contemporary human behavior.

At the heart of his investigations is a sense of disorientation, generated by diverse sources of stress and alienation in contemporary society: education, housing crises, financial speculation, overpopulation, the neoliberal system. The artist likens the combined effect of these crisis situations to oneirism: a hallucinatory dream state experienced while wide awake.

Robert Brambora (born in 1984, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He completed his studies in the class of Rebecca Warren at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 2015. Previous solo and duo exhibitions include ‘Good bye euch’ at Tobias Naehring, Berlin (2021); ‘La Ballade des Sardines’ at Sans titre (2016), Paris (2020); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2019); ‘Too much of Nothing’ at Sans titre (2016), Paris (2017); ‘Forward to History’ (with Jan Kiefer) at Kunstverein Wiesen, Wiesen (2016) and ‘The Hunt’ at Salon Kennedy, Frankfurt (2015). Brambora’s work has been shown in group exhibitions at Verein für Kunst e.v. – Hinterconti HellsClub (2021); CAN – Centre d’Art Neuchâtel (2021); Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof (2020); Ginny on Frederick, London (2020); Nagel Draxler Gallery, Cologne (2019); Haverkampf Gallery, Berlin (2019), Tobias Naehring, Leipzig (2019), Kunstverein Mönchengladbach (2019); Neuer Kunstverein Essen, Essen, (2018); Basement, Leipzig (2018); Walz, Frankfurt (2018); PIK, Cologne (2017); Schkeudi, Leipzig (2017); Real positive, Cologne (2016); Fiebach/Minninger, Cologne (2016); ABC Kolonie, Copenhagen (2015); Salon Schmitz, Cologne (2015); Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf (2013) amongst others. In 2022, Brambora will present his work at the Nice Biennale, curated by Marie Maertens.