TJAŠA IRIS

14 MONSOONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA

A EUROPEAN UNDER THE TROPICS

TJAŠA IRIS (b. 1968) She works with both photography and painting, depicting vibrant and saturated images of flowers, gardens and vegetation. Iris’ primary focus is investigating the expressive abilities and nuances of colour. The exhibition is about her last 9 years she mostly spent living/creating/ traveling and exhibiting in South East Asia: Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia.

At this moment she reached a sweet spot where the art historians and art critics in Europe say that her work belongs to Asia, while the art historians and art critics from Asia say that her work belongs to Europe. A clear sign of her creating a new powerful and unique aesthetics.

A Slovenian artist who left Slovenia at age 18 to go to study to Florence, Italy, England and The Netherlands. After that she lived for many years in Venice, Italy as well as Paris, California, Morocco, Croatia, Tuscany and Provence until landing in Hong Kong in 2009. Since then she made South East Asia her home. Until now she lived in 17 countries and learnt 9 languages.

During this period of 9 years she spent over 5 years in Thailand, first in Chiang Mai and later in Bangkok. From September 2015 to September 2018 she lived a nomadic life, living between Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. Before that she also lived in Bali, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos and visited Myanmar on numerous occasions. Since August 2018 she has her studio in Kuala Lumpur, but continues spending one month in Bangkok every three months.

Expressionist Concerns

Iris’ earlier work centered on landscapes with a warmer Southern European and Mediterranean atmosphere and colour palette. Her more recent paintings and photographs take a closer look at the flora of the natural world, exploring the vibrant colours in a dynamic and uplifting style. Her work borrows sentiments from the Expressionist movement, placing importance on the emotional experience rather than depicting a faithful reality.

An Exceptional Colourist

Iris works with vivid, light and highly pigmented colours, using them straight from the tube instead of diluting them. Through her fluid use of colour, we notice the contrasts between light and dark, bright, warm tones and more sober ones. Her main preoccupation is to create something uplifting and bright in a world where, often, darkness pervades.

Important Institutions

Iris has exhibited extensively worldwide in countries such as Italy, Thailand, India, Slovenia, Singapore and France. She has exhibited in institutions such as, The Substation Art Center in Singapore, CMU Chiang Mai Art Museum and the BACC Bangkok Arts and Culture Center.

The exhibition is ONLINE only for the moment, but will travel worldwide in the coming future.

TJAŠA IRIS at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10 min walk away from her current studio.