Sascha Braunig: Torsion

Kunsthall Stavanger is proud to present Torsion, the first institutional solo-exhibition by Canadian artist Sascha Braunig. Braunig’s illusory and vibrant paintings and sculptures defy simplistic classification. At once vividly real and lusciously dreamlike, they blur the line between figure and abstraction.

Braunig’s work has been described as subtle, smooth, and entrancing. There is an undeniable haptic quality to her artwork; at times sharp and metallic, at other times fleshy and muscular. The figures, often humanoid in form, seduce the viewer to come closer, yet never allow the eye to comfortably settle, led to rove between background, foreground, and frame. The subjects often threaten the clean border of the canvas, and are sometimes forced to stay in place, appearing to be pinned, stretched, even flayed and mounted onto the canvas. Braunig displays a wildly successful trompe l'oeil of the imagination.

Titled Torsion, the exhibition at Kunsthall Stavanger brings together a selection of the artist’s newer paintings and sculptures for the first time in Norway. Artworks La Maitresse and Scrim present an armature secured to a backdrop, while in other paintings such as Warm Leatherette, Herm, and Waist Jenny, forms either evolve or are pushed from the background towards the viewer. In addition to paintings, the exhibition includes Cuirasse and Chur, two cast-bronze sculptures, directly linking the corporeal aesthetic of the paintings with true three-dimensional forms. In all Braunig’s works, the body-oriented imagery and hyper-realistic modeling lead the audience to question the boundaries between objecthood and subjecthood, the imagination and reality.

Sascha Braunig (born 1983 in Qualicum Beach, Canada) lives and works in Portland, ME. She holds a BFA from the Cooper Union, New York, NY, and a MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT. Alongside recent solo exhibitions at Foxy Production, New York, NY, Braunig has recently participated in the New Museum Triennial, New York, NY, as well as group exhibitions at Anton Kern Gallery, New York, NY; Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium; Regina Rex, Brooklyn, NY; White Cube, London, UK; and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, OH.

This exhibition would not have been possible without support from Arts Council Norway, Stavanger City and Rogaland County Council.