Gallery koal proudly presents the first solo exhibition of Olarn Chiaravanont in Europe. Born in 1986 in Bangkok, Chiaravanont lives and works in London since 2004. In July 2012 he received his Master of Fine Arts at Goldsmith College. Chiaravanont works in the classic medium of painting and decidedly refers to the historic imagery and formal vocabulary of mid-century modernism. All paintings displayed in this show are from 2012.
Olarn Chiaravanont's paintings are distinguished by their lightness and focused clarity: round as well as organic shapes and drippings are effortlessly and weightlessly floating through space. Yet they are precisely calculated, each decision is well considered and apodictically carried out.
Painted with a strong brush, extansive and mostly monochromatic backgrounds serve as a foundation for coloured shapes, which, painted or poured, overlap and intersect. By using both, acrylic and oil paint, Chiaravanont gains a comprehensive painterly vocabulary. Chiaravanont works with an elemental and original language of forms, that cannot be classified clearly with a single cultural environment, and consciously moves between worlds. Playfully, he merges different styles and influences from art history and in most cases, colors and shapes only mix visually but never dissolve and keep their integrity.
The dynamic that is transferred to the painting is a crucial quality of his work, which oscillates between control and chance, figuration and abstraction. Chiaravanont's artistic practice does not only allow the possibility of failure by being open to the unforeseeable, its existence is practically based on it. Because, in a certain way, every paintings leaves something unanswered for Chiaravanont and therefore provides the impulse to create a new work.
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