Agence de Voyage
British artist Tim Braden’s first solo show evokes the dreamy spirit of travel
Tim Braden‘s first solo show at Ambach and Rice gallery in LA is like a dreamy, nostalgic trip to somewhere that’s always sunny. Aptly named “Agence de Voyage” or “Travel Agency,” the British artist uses friends’ snapshots to create paintings as a sort of casual anthropological study.
The locations in Braden’s paintings are familiar but elusive. The work creates an intense longing for travel, rather than directly transporting the viewer to a real place. By tightly cropping or inverting the perspective of his images, and then sanding the surfaces to peel away the sharpness and clarity of paintings, Braden conjures up the feeling of a holiday. While these may be vague impressions of countries such as Cambodia, Russia and Brazil, they make us want to go any place we can bury our toes in the sand and let go. “Agence de Voyage” runs to 13 October 2012 at Ambach and Rice.
For more images from Braden’s show, see the slideshow.
