Thomas Braida

Thomas Braida (Gorizia, 1982) lives and works in Venezia.

Being influenced by the territory and by the people I meet has been a strength and help for my work. I have always worked closely with many artists, first during the academy in an atelier where group work was the basis of our professor’s methodology, and then as a member and president of an artistic collective called Fondazione Malutta (about 50 artists). It is essential for me to build together, to try to get out of ourselves, from our ego, to give life to something collective; it is a very healthy exercise for an artist. I use the form of artistic expression as a key to access a different world, a personal story that tries to touch everyone’s chords. In my work there is a strong sense of the image: incorporating reality, turning it upside down, feeding it with quotes, irony, the unlikely, mythology, and a bit of pop culture. Even when I focus on irony, I do it very seriously. There’s an urgency to re-imagine the real. The outside external sparks my imagination that then degenerates into painting. What is in front of me is never enough: I always pimp reality, making it more appetizing. Through ‘simplification’, I seek a more direct way of communication with myself and with the outside world, starting from a very powerful and noble intent. Always and in any case to make it an ‘act of love’. My mission as a painter is, in essence, to simply care about painting.

Solo exhibitions:

2024 I Pilastri, Fondazione Malutta, Venice, Italy

2023 Matematiche Notturne, Monitor Lisbon, Portugal

2022 Negli Specchi Torbidi Riflessi, Spazio Sanpaolo Invest, Treviglio curated by Rossella Farinotti

2022 GRANDI PICCOLINI- The shape of paint to come, Monitor Roma

2019 La bava sul cuscino, curated by Caroline Corbetta, Le Dictateur, Milano

2018 Aspettando dentro l’anno del gatto, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, Pesaro Centro Arti Visive Pescheria

2017 Solo, curated by Caroline Corbetta, Palazzo Nani Bernardo, Venice; Solo show, Monitor, Rome

2014 Solo show, Monitor Studio, New York Thomas Braida – Toads Swallow Fireflies, The Gods Eat Everything, Gust van Dijk – Home to Contemporary Art,Tillburg,Holland

Group exhibitions:

2024 Infinita infanzia, Spoleto, a cura di Saverio Verini

2023 Diario Notturno, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi with Chiara Bertini and Fanny Borel, MAXXI L’Aquila, Italy

2023 Human silk, Curated by guest curators Aurora Fonda and Sandro Pignotti, Kwai Fung Salone, Hong Kong

2022 Officine Malanotte, open studio residency, curated by Daniele Capra

2021 VACCANZA- Fondazione Malutta-The Mountain Tropical Experience, Nuovo Spazio di Casso al Vajont

2021 Fragile, curated by Christian Caliandro at Monitor Rome; Basta, Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy

2021 Stasi frenetica, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa, GAM, Turin

2020 TRANSATLANTICO, curated by Edoardo Monti, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

2020 Ciò che vedo. Nuova figurazione in Italia, Thomas Braida, curated by Alfredo Cramerotti and Margherita De Pilati, Galleria Civica, Trento

2020 Pequenas notas sobre figuração, MONITOR LISBON, Lisboa

2020 Pesi Massimi, Fondazione Malutta, Spazio Punch, Venice

2018 Graffiare il presente, curated by Daniele Capra and Giuseppe Frangi, Casa Testori, Milan

2018 Straperetana. Il tempo svogliato, curated by Saverio Verini

2018 Unrealised Paintings, curated by Valentina Rossi, More Museum

2017 VIVA ARTE VIVA curated by Treti Galaxie, FuturDome, Milan

2015 ARTE IN CENTRO, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz per le Arti e le Culture, Palazzo De Sanctis, Castelbasso, Teramo

2015 BACO | Open MIA, Palazzo della Misericordia, Bergamo

2014 Shit and Die, Palazzo Cavour, Torino; Un’Idea di Pittura II, MONITOR STUDIO, New York

2014 Un’ idea di pittura I, Monitor, Rome

2013 Istanbul Contemporary Istanbul is very busy. SEA Foundation is showing work of Thomas Braida, Clau De La Torre and John Dyer Baizley