Sweet Nothing

The works of Ties Ten Bosch (NL, 1977) put the viewer at the center, where they are challenged to look deeper to interpret the image. 

Ten Bosch develops his own methodology to research the role of contemporary art within our society and his personal position as an artist. The environment and opportunity to present work is the entry point for the works that he creates in his studio in Berlin and on-site. This could be an abandoned factory in Leipzig, a slum in Cameroon, or in this case, the ‘white cube’ of the gallery.

Sweet Nothing, Ties Ten Bosch’s first solo exhibition at Frank Taal Gallery, is inspired by the last publication of Dutch writer and art lover Joost Zwagerman: De stilte van het licht (The Silence of the Light). In this beautiful bundle of short art reflections, the silence and light in painting are the main focus.

For his exhibition, Sweet Nothing, Ten Bosch takes on the role of a painter, similar to that of Zero artists such as Schoonhoven and Fontana, but also the likes of Sol Lewitt and Robert Ryman, as shoulders to stand on.

In Sweet Nothing, just like in the bundle of Zwagerman’s art reflections, the experience of the emptiness and light are the focus. With a series of minimalistic paintings and wall paintings, Ten Bosch stresses the diffuse field between the individual art piece and the exhibition as an installation. His works are read as an after-image, a trace of the past. These images, shown by emptiness and light, suggest in a subtle way earlier images that are now gone and on which we, as viewers, can project our own fantasy.

Ties Ten Bosch lives and works in Berlin.