Gerhardt Braun Gallery presents, for the first time, the paintings of Erwin Esteban Schrott Baladon. Internationally acclaimed as an opera singer, he now reveals a previously unseen dimension of his artistic practice. WHEN THE SURFACE OPENS marks his first-ever exhibition as a painter.
Schrott builds his works layer by layer. Plaster, mineral pigments, wax, acrylic and gold leaf are applied, removed, reworked or exposed. Not everything that emerges remains. And not everything that disappears is truly gone. Traces of earlier decisions remain embedded in the surface. It is precisely this process that interests him: not only the finished work, but the moment when something breaks open and another direction becomes possible.
"I love the space in between, because that is exactly who I am. I live between continents, between scores, between the seven languages I speak and sing. The in-between is a place of friction. And from friction, something new emerges." — Erwin Esteban Schrott Baladon.
The exhibition title WHEN THE SURFACE OPENS comes directly from this way of working. A surface is opened, and something beneath it comes into view. At the same time, the title allows for a second reading. Opening also means freedom - the moment when something is allowed to become visible without already being defined. With this exhibition, such a moment opens to the public for the first time: a moment of becoming visible - and an invitation to discover for oneself what opens.
