Thomas Trum: autobahn

The Hole is pleased to announce Autobahn, our second solo exhibition by Dutch artist Thomas Trum. In this show Trum explores abstraction within a self-imposed set of restrictions to focus on line and color across disparate sizes and media.

With Autobahn, Trum continues his multi-hyphenate practice of drawing, painting, furniture design, murals and public installation. With each body of work he brings a new set of strategies for gesture, drawing and timing. In this show we see more restraint, more economy, more dramatic emphasis per mark: the trace of the machine, like the tracks of a car, is clear and confident. Trum's latest series of "Duotone" works on paper proceed further, providing a close-up to the lines within the lines.

Intrigued by large industrial equipment such as agricultural machinery—which operates at major scale and power in a rhythmic pattern—Trum experiments with different structures of automation to continuously discover new ways to create. The extensive preparations contrast with the execution of the final work, which sometimes only takes a couple of minutes. These paintings and works on paper are interactions between human and tool, like a choreography, applying the pigment to the surface in the best way possible. You can see the physicality in his works; a movement captured in color.

Trum has a keen understanding of the material qualities of pigment: research into materials and techniques is at the heart of his work. He often develops unconventional tools including giant felt-tip pens and custom-built spraying machines. His works on canvas are applied with a giant handmade squeegee and special ink controlled meticulously by the artist's hand and body. His drawings are similarly precise, drawn carefully with a super-sized felt pen. A more tolerant process, his wall murals require him to carefully push a custom paint sprayer with a large rotating arm distributing a colorful gradient of hypnotic loops.

Thomas Trum (b. 1989, NL) 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. Image above: Het Noordbrabants Museum, 2023.