Interview

“In his approach to painting, [Thomas Trum 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 colourful large-scale work.”  – by Rianne Groen

Thomas Trum (1989) lives and works in s’-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. He graduated from the Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2014. 

His works have been shown at a variety of galleries and museums like Het Nieuw Instituut, Rotterdam, Art Rotterdam and Het Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenbosch. 

Naomi Safran-Hon creates work that makes gripping statements about the fragility of human experience, the complicated nature of one’s home, and the vicissitudes of collective identities. The artist is seeking the narrative that is hidden and buried in the landscape. The spirit is inherent in Safran-Hon’s intellectual construction, and, as the journey described in sefer hechaloth, the inner odyssey within oneself (Anselm Kiefer) permeates her entire body of work. 

Safran-Hon’s process lingers at the intersection of drawing, photography, sculpture, and painting, focusing on the internal energy of the material, continuously emboldening the viewer to look beyond the surface. Her work is anchored in undeniable reality, yet she unceasingly builds by extracting the essence from the soul of the materials she uses, thus transforming preexisting contexts. 

Safran-Hon uses a unique process to transform her photographs into evocative paintings with strong impressionist undertones. Cutting through the photograph and canvas, Safran-Hon pushes concrete through the lace stretched over these empty spaces then paints on top, imbuing each piece with a sculptural quality whose dimensionality causes the eye to stick in the nooks and crannies of the work, lingering over objects—some immediately recognizable, some requiring effort to piece back together. 

Erick Antonio Benitez (b. 1988, Bronx, NY) is a first generation Salvadoran-American multidisciplinary artist, musician, organizer and curator based between Baltimore, MD and Los Angeles, CA. He received a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has exhibited work at Selenas Mountain (NY), REGULARNORMAL at Dinner Gallery (NY), Greenpoint Gallery (NY),  Connor Smith Gallery (DC), The Baltimore Museum of Art (MD), Gaddis Geeslin Gallery (TX), Strange Fire Collective (CO), Galerie B-312 (Montreal, QC), Metafora Studio Arts (Barcelona, ES) and Simultan Festival (Timișoara, RO). His work has been reviewed by The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, BmoreArt, The American Scholar, Terremoto (MX) and Le Devoir (QC) and a few publications including the sixth issue of BmoreArt Magazine, Let’s Talk Live (WJLA), and Hyrsteria Zine Vol. 2. Benitez is also a recipient of the Ruby Artist Project grant, The Contemporary: Grit Fund 2, MASB Travel Artist Award, Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Award and has participated in The Studios residency at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA). Most recently, Benitez received a Baltimore Light City Festival commission and an invitation to Pigment Sauvage “La Track” residency in Montreal, Quebec-Canada.

The exhibit discussed in the interview is A Country Made of Ice Cream.

Jorge Macchi is a  visual artist. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1963. Lives and works in Buenos Aires. In 2001 he was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.

He had three major retrospectives of his work: Perspectiva at MALBA Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, in 2016, Music Stand Still at S.M.A.K the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium in 2011, and The anatomy of melancholy at Santander Cultural, 2007, Blanton Museum, 2007 and CGAC, Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo, 2008, He represented Argentina at the Venice Biennial in 2005.

He took part in the Biennials of Liverpool 2012, Lyon 2011, Yokohama 2008, Porto Alegre 2007, Venezia 2005, San Pablo 2004, Estambul 2003, Porto Alegre 2003.

Sung Hwa Kim (b. 1985 in Seoul, South Korea) received his MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art and his BFA from The Art Institute of Boston. Kim has held solo exhibition at Hesse Flatow (New York, NY). Recent group exhibitions include Gone Was the Glow at 1969 Gallery (New York, NY); At the Table, The AAPI Awareness Charity Exhibition at Christie’s (New York, NY); You Had Me At Hello: New American Paintings 2022 Review at Steven Zevitas Gallery (Boston, MA); The Views at Moskowitz Bayse (Los Angeles, CA); Shifted Horizon at HESSE FLATOW (New York, NY); 36 Paintings at Harper’s Books (East Hampton, NY); NOCTURNE on Galleryplatform.LA, M+B (Los Angeles, CA); The Edge Effect curated by Akili Tommasino at The Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah, NY). Sung Hwa Kim lives and works in New York City.