Stephen Bram

Stephen Bram’s prac­tice is defined by inno­va­tions in abstract paint­ing and the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of archi­tec­tur­al space. In this series of paint­ings, Stephen Bram uses a com­plex per­spec­ti­val sys­tem to gen­er­ate dynam­ic and colour­ful geo­met­ric forms. This marks a sig­nif­i­cant depar­ture in the artist’s visu­al lan­guage, known for hard-edge geom­e­try and a mut­ed palette. Bram’s spec­trum of colour acts as a cat­a­lyst for shifts in the expe­ri­ence of space and com­pos­es an oscil­lat­ing, mul­ti-dimen­sion­al field.

Bram’s unique method of cre­at­ing paint­ing using van­ish­ing points began in the late 1980’swith two or three points drawn from the space out­side the paint­ing onto the pic­ture plane. In this sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship between art and archi­tec­ture, the meet­ing of lines con­sti­tutes the struc­ture of the paint­ings and delim­its their configuration.

As not­ed by Max Delany: ​‘Bram’s use of flat poly­chrome paint­ing, spa­tial manip­u­la­tion and mul­ti­ple van­ish­ing points ampli­fies the rela­tion­ship between abstrac­tion and real­i­ty, con­struc­tion and rep­re­sen­ta­tion, archi­tec­ture and design. Exe­cut­ed with math­e­mat­i­cal pre­ci­sion Bram’s […] paint­ings allude to the dig­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and per­cep­tion of space and archi­tec­tur­al form.’1

Over the three next decades, Bram fol­lowed rig­or­ous log­ic and allowed his process to lead him to new ter­ri­to­ries, includ­ing paint­ing direct­ly onto the walls and build­ing inte­ri­or archi­tec­tur­al spaces.

This body of work invokes the prac­tice of like­mind­ed con­cep­tu­al artists, such as Daniel Buren and Sol LeWitt, who con­sis­tent­ly chal­lenge the sys­tems they cre­ate as a means to rev­o­lu­tionise their prac­tice and cre­ate new meaning.

‘In my work the inter­est of the fic­tive space has very much to do with the imme­di­ate rela­tion­ship between the con­text of the view­er of the work and the work itself and those being some­how tied togeth­er by the idea of them both occu­py­ing a par­tic­u­lar archi­tec­tur­al space. One of the things that is com­pelling about that space is the reflex­iv­i­ty of the viewer’s expe­ri­ence of the image.’2

1. Max Delany, ​‘Inci­dent in the Muse­um 1: Stephen Bram’, Monash Muse­um of Art, Mel­bourne, 2004.

2. Stephen Bram inter­viewed by Sue Cramer, ​‘Ober­föhringer Straße 156, 2001’, Christo­pher Kra­matscheck (ed), Munich, 2001