Thomas Mailaender: Solo Chaud

Roman Road is thrilled to present Solo Chaud, an intriguing solo exhibition by Thomas Mailaender. For the first time in London the artist will exhibit together diverse works inspired from his ‘Fun Archive’. Featuring his new series of ceramics, his cyanotypes, as well as a fantastic selection of works from his contemporaneous projects: Les Belles Images and his Chicken Museum relics, the exhibition explores Mailaender’s methods of exploiting his archived images and shows how his innovative practice drives a new mode of art making, built from a merged position as a photographer, curator and collector.

The ‘Fun Archive’ is a personal collection of more than 11000 amateur photographs that Thomas Mailaender began in 2000 as a student in art school. Amassed from the Internet and flea markets, his images draw from human behaviour and incidental activities, each entertaining with comical and unabashed content. Throughout his practice, he has employed varied and alternative printing techniques to elevate his collected souvenirs into the line of art, including the somewhat outmoded cyanotype chiefly recognised by its distinctive cyan-blue hue.

With the growing interest in contemporary ceramics Mailaender’s unique mixed media sculptures certainly arouse curiosity and elude expectations. Shifting both between materials and representation, his novel pieces defy categorisation as sculpture, photography or pottery. In his new Totem #3 (2014) for example, various vintage collected porcelains on a black faience sculpture with fused glass sit atop a wooden pedestal platform covered in rainbow polished tile featuring a collage of his photo ceramics. As painted tile becomes sculptural base and photograph becomes object, Mailaender emerges as an idiosyncratic talent of contemporary art today.

The walls and floor of Roman Road’s gallery space will be covered with squares of white cardboard joined together in adhesive tape, upon which Mailaender will mount an array of his vibrant works. To complement the comprehensive display of his artworks, all of the artist’s books will be presented together and will be available to purchase at the gallery.