Netherlands

Thomas Trum

United States

New York

The Hole

Painting

Two Orange Lines 38

Three Green Lines 5

Three Red Lines 5

Three Purple Lines 2

Two Blue Lines 41

Two Green Lines 38

Two Yellow Lines 26

Two Yellow Lines 28

Two Peach Lines 4

Two Brown Lines 17

Three Orange Lines 3

Three Green Lines 7

Two Blue Lines 40

Three Blue Lines 6

Three Orange Lines 36

Two Red Lines 23

Two Red Lines 24

Two Green Lines 40

The Hole is proud to present the first solo exhibition in America by Dutch artist Thomas Trum. Having debuted his mesmerizing mechanized paintings in group shows before, we get to bring the artist here to New York at long last so he can present a mural installation as well.

Captivated by a video of the artist at work, using a custom-crafted tool to spray a giant arch of color gradient on the wall, I was determined to expose audiences here to the unique work of Trum. Updating the formulaic wall paintings of Sol Lewitt, bumping up against orphic cubism and design, while also bringing his background in street culture into play, Trum is innovating in abstraction. Researching the material qualities of paint, and engineering new ways to deploy them, he appropriates street painting devices, super-sized felt pens from graffiti and graphic design, often rigged with drills or bike chains in his experiments with how to make a line.

The wall murals feature a swinging arm of spray that he rotates as he pushes the machine across the gallery. Drippy and fast, they are meant to be expressive and inflected with serendipitous imperfections. The paintings on canvas are done with a giant squeegee and special ink controlled very precisely by the artist’s hand. Here imperfections are not as welcome and the geometry must be precise.

Thomas Trum (NL, 1989) lives and works in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. He studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. His work is represented in public and private collections including the Het Noordbrabants Museum, AkzoNobel Art Foundation and Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.  Using the studio as a place for experiment, he looks into unconventional ways to paint on paper, canvas or walls. Paint is his muse, whether it is in small-scale research or expanding public spaces with his colorful large-scale work.

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