Artist: Thomas Trum
Exhibition title: Smooth Synergy
Venue: Base-Alpha, Antwerp, Belgium
Date: November 11 – December 18, 2021
Photography: We Document Art, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Base-Alpha, Antwerp
Thomas Trum (NL, 1989) works on the intersection of art and design.
Most of his work evolves around a material research of paint and techniques to apply this. Using the studio as a place for experiment, he looks into unconventional ways to paint on paper, canvas or walls. For example, he used a super sized felt pen, a machine for road line marking and brushes attached to a drill. His very active way of working is often based on trial-and-error: the result of his actions are never pre-determined , keeping enthusiasm and velocity part of the end result.
In his approach to painting, he tries to find out everything there is to know about a certain paint or piece of equipment before using it in his work. The way he works on a smaller piece of paper is basically similar to when he makes a large mural: by zooming in and out on his own methods he can work on many different surfaces and sizes. Paint is his muse, whether it is in small-scale research or expanding public spaces with his colorful large-scale work.
His work is represented in collections of the Noord Brabants Museum, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Akzo Nobel Art foundation, NN group, Ministry of education culture and science (OCW), Ministry of infrastructure and water managment and the Royal collection.
text by Rianne Groen
