Channatip Chanvipava Seeks to Uncover a “Common Fact” in New Exhibition “Wizards of Omaha”

The London-based Thai artist embraces the kaleidoscopic impact of reminiscence in a brand new solo exhibition at Ronchini in London.

Channatip Chanvipava’s method to his craft is extremely private. His topics are, in his personal phrases, “explicitly autobiographical and profoundly self-referential”; his apply explores broad themes by way of the lens of particular experiences and reflections. “My work come from the notion of accepting my previous, as a solution to reconcile with my very own fact,” says the artist.

The connection between reminiscence and fact is the principle thrust of “Wizards of Omaha,” Chanvipava’s new solo exhibition on view at Ronchini in London by way of October 3. The present is curated by Marisa Bellani and follows a latest string of equally introspective solo reveals, together with “2 chairs 1 life” (2023) at Roman Highway in London, “Spirit Unravelled” (2023) at Monti8 in Latina, Italy, and “The Sound of Many Waters” at Dimora Ai Santi through the 2024 Venice Biennale.

Born in Bangkok to a conservative interfaith household, Chanvipava got here to London to attend the London Faculty of Economics, finishing his diploma in 2016. After a stint on the Royal School of Artwork in London, he determined to set himself free from the tutorial system to pursue artwork as a self-taught artist.

The reminiscence of such experiences — and the paradoxes entailed — are integral to the works in “Wizards of Omaha”; in actual fact, Chanvipava’s work are totally painted from reminiscence. However whereas the fallibility of reminiscence is at finest a irritating obstacle for a lot of artists, for Chanvipava, it’s the crux of his method.

Based on the artist, the thought for every portray originates as a sequence of psychological snapshots from his previous. Via a technique of contemplation and meditation, these granular recollections are extensively blurred and distorted, reworking from seminal moments into luminous scenes laminated with private which means. Chanvipava creates an imagined summary collage utilizing psychological imagery after which commits these recollected vignettes onto canvas, with none prior drafting or sketching. Working with oils, he attains a way of dimension with broad brushwork and a number of layers of wealthy shade.

This marriage of intense psychological preparation and improvisatory method is a matrix by way of which the artist organizes and aligns his experiences, assembling previous identities into “a common fact with braveness, hope, and persistence.”

The colourful hues and natural kinds that populate Chanvipava’s work appear to invoke this sense of idealistic optimism and spotlight its pressure in opposition to the unknown. Take Wizards of Omaha (2024), the large titular portray that anchors the exhibition: the piece depicts a pair of figures in confident repose, evoking “a partnership cemented by knowledge and fortune,” the artist observes. Nonetheless, the figures’ amorphous outlines recommend that the character of the connection could also be extra obscure.

The fragmentation of reminiscence is realized by way of the juxtaposition of realism and abstraction. On the far proper of the body, a set of cups and a glass bottle are seen, rendered in delicate element. In the meantime, broad squiggles in blue, orange, and yellow traverse the composition, lending a way of movement to the scene; a cool inexperienced area of a woven verify sample grounds the nebulous scene in geometric regularity.

Inexperienced and blue backgrounds reappear in different works to imbue a way of continuity in Chanvipava’s enigmatic reminiscence palace. The portray If All You Have Is a Hammer, the World Is Your Nail (2024) is of comparable scale to Wizards of Omaha and deploys an identical palette of cool tones punctured by flashes of orange and mauve. Right here, the topics are in sharper focus. Two besuited figures stand, staggered, within the foreground; behind them, a black, rectangular void seems to open up just like the maw of a cave. These parts lend the portray an ominous tone echoed by the work’s title (a nod to behavioral psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “legislation of the instrument”), however the total impact is softened by the dynamic, even playful vibrancy of Chanvipava’s brushstrokes.

A few of the smaller-scale works within the exhibition eschew recognizable figures altogether, permitting shade to function the first car of expression. Crystal Ball (2024), which remembers a reminiscence set in a fortune teller’s front room, establishes an enveloping aura of pale orange animated by strokes of muted pink. Heavy blue constructions prolong previous the sides of the canvas, ballasting the warm-hued composition and suggesting the inaccessibility of the longer term, whereas a kidney-shaped type, floating on the high of the body like a celestial object, brings the opposite colours into concord.

This reniform form is a motif all through the works within the exhibition. Swimming Bare (2024) serves because the inverse of Crystal Ball, counting on darkish hues with daring accents to mission an identical message of uncertainty. But just like the latter, this form appears to forged heat over the moody scene from its place within the higher nook.

The nice and cozy tenor is a becoming through-line for “Wizards of Omaha,” which arrives as a private milestone for Chanvipava as a lot as knowledgeable one. The collected works gracefully espouse themes of blurred identification, the interaction between mysticism and observable actuality, and the assumption within the energy of artwork, underscoring notions of self-acceptance and a assured orientation towards the longer term.

“Wizards of Omaha” is on view at Ronchini in London from September 11 to October 3, 2024. See extra at Ronchini Gallery website.