Today we’d like to introduce you to Bransha Gautier.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up, I was always very quiet and shy, so art was a way for me to express myself freely and to open up to the world. Since childhood, I always had a passion for arts, but I never limited myself to just one form of expression. I studied at the Academy of Beautiful Arts and started my career as a painter, creating a bit unique style that brought me plenty of international exhibitions, so I traveled to many exotic destinations that completely reshaped my life and stirred my path from painting more toward photography and motion pictures. There were times when I thought it would be better to profound one skill rather than work simultaneously with several however today I realize that multidisciplinarism was the way for me to go. As if one art field was the portal to the other so my curiosity kept growing and even today you can find me working in completely new art media. I get very passionate about everything I do and it occupies my whole time and being! When I start to paint, e.g., I cannot stop until I am done as if some higher force possessed my mind and body that does not let me do or think anything else but paint. It is more-less the same in all other art disciplines that I work in.
Truly, for me art is like a sacred space especially painting, designing, making fashion and everything that I create with my bare hands. It transcends to the whole other dimension and as a reward, aside from great personal satisfaction, it gives me also an opportunity to exhibit in prestigious photo festivals, biennales as well as film and new-media festivals all around the world, that would be impossible otherwise. On some deeper level, everything in life is connected and that is how my art also led from one art field to another. My paintings were highly inspired by Viennese Secession and I guess I turned from painting into photography while exhibiting and working in Korea and Sudan. I fell in love with their both so fascinating and yet completely different cultures and costumes so I wanted to capture every single moment with all that beauty as seen through my eyes. As I experimented with different mediums and techniques, I pushed myself to explore new boundaries and incorporate new ideas into my work so I believe that all these diverse experiences and skills actually enrich my art and helped me to stand out from the crowd.
Today, I combine everything in order to create immersive multimedia installations that would engage all the senses and transport viewers to other worlds. In collaborations with other artists and musicians, I try to create unforgettable experiences blurring the boundaries between art, performance, and technology.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Unfortunately, not at all. At the beginning, I struggled with finding the right opportunities, clients or gallery representation as well as many rejections or unpaid gigs that led to financial instability but even more to self-doubt and criticism. Lack of confidence was my major obstacle! It was very difficult at the start to cope with it but with time, I developed a thicker skin and learned how to deal with rejections, negative feedback and most importantly to bounce back from it. Transcendental meditation helped me a lot to stay inspired and motivated, even during difficult times. I prefer to focus solely on creating art so not having time and skills for networking and self-promotion was another big obstacle for me.
Parallel with my career, I was always managing some sort of a small business as a gallerist, Magazine editor and TV producer, so unfortunately that included also working as a one-man show in the field of marketing, accounting, and sales too, and that was very time-consuming and exhausting for me! Other challenging situations were when my paintings were stolen from the exhibition or lack of recognition in some important events, pressure to create art that sells but does not align with my personal creative vision and so on, so due to all these series of failures and setbacks along my career path, I experienced, as many other artists do, periods of complete creative blocks. However all these challenges were very valuable lessons to me because they stir my art journey in the other, ultimately better direction and taught me to grow further from every mistake and use it to my advantage.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Well, I’m a multidisciplinary artist specializing in ethnic tribes, preservation of the indigenous arts and culture throughout photography, painting, animated pictures and film. During the early stages of my career, I developed a bit unique painting style that brought me numerous exhibitions worldwide as well permanent and private collections in museums such as Chosunilbo Museum in Seoul/ Korea, Ontological Museum in Colorado/ USA, MUBE in São Paulo/ Brazil, RDAC in Khartoum/ Sudan, Kyoto Municipal Museum in Japan, Contemporary Art Museum in Aiud/ Romania, Flux Museum in Texas/ USA and many museums in China like Yan Huan Art Museum in Beijing, Dafen Museum in Shenzhen, Henan Art Museum in Zhengzhou, as well National Museum of Beijing.
Throughout the years, I continued to profound my artistic skills more towards photography and film as reflections on feminism, identity and heritage. In my style and range of themes on unity in diversity, I try to embody the values of multiculturalism and continue to develop my visual language by symbiosis of completely diverse traditions and cultures, displaying despite heritage differences, human’s profound need for oneness. I absolutely love bold colours and somehow I always travel to countries that overflow with them. If you visit India, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil the colourful arts, vibrant saris, delicious cuisines, flowers are on every corner, as if you entered in an ancient folk tale. Colours represent different emotions to people living in various regional, geographical, and religious divides but colour, in essence, has been a large part of my consciousness as well. I love to bring out the details of colour and definition to enhance the richness of a culture or as synonymous with religion – an expression of faith and beliefs. I approach these subjects not only from aesthetic point of view, to showcase their colourful folklore but to convey the message that educates humanity and leads them to reflect on important contemporary issues. If there’s an influence on my artistic research and approach, I would say that it’s a social one rather than a particular cultural movement.
As I traveled around the world, I became especially touched and concerned with a female role in a certain societies, behaviour of human being as well ecological issues that tend to be often linked together. It’s one thing when you visit a country as a tourist and the whole other dimension when you are living and working with natives. These experiences had an enormous impact as well on my personal life as on professional line on work. My life got a whole other meaning enriched with new languages, stories and legends from different continents, diverse spiritual practices that you can also see in my artworks field with folklore scenes from all around the world. Therefore, despite very different costumes, everyday rituals, religious or political views all people just want to be loved and accepted. Not only that we all share the same basic needs but even beyond that there’s a greater picture that unites us all. In addition, that’s what my art is all about, that unity in diversity in all its abundance! I can’t emphasize enough how Unity in Diversity is the key for the future development rather than patriotism that is highly misused. I always try to stay true to my vision, striving to create art that is meaningful, inspiring, and transformative, so maybe that combination of storytelling and diverse technique approach is what sets my art apart from others.
Art is a form of nonverbal communication and in my opinion, it should deliver questions or raise awareness on most important topics of today! We have an obligation to reshape the world for better through art. Like before when true journalism was alive, on the same way artist should display the society they are living in, raise awareness about racism, sexism, feminism, etc. I think that art must have an expression of reality. I try to create force within a visual movement. Despite being a static image, you can feel the dynamic, energetic atmosphere. I always try to give into social criticism in support of human rights as well as animal rights and freedom of expression in general. Art is a powerful tool and can be an endless source of ideas and inspiration that continuously opens new questions and hypothesis.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was very shy and quite as a child. Art was the way for me to express myself, so a strong passion for arts was already completely cultivated early on in my childhood. I was always very imaginative maybe even too much and I would spend hours of creating something. Especially I loved to make masks from diverse materials. I was pretty introspective growing up, as I often spent a lot of time working alone in my room. A deep appreciation for beauty and aesthetics was always present in me with a strong desire to express my ideas and emotions through art.
I had always a bit different taste from my friends and family, a strong sense of personal style, you could say, so I always enjoyed expressing myself through fashion. I drew my inspiration from variety of sources, from nature and art to music and pop culture, and use it to create something new and exciting. I tend to be curious and open-minded, with a strong desire to explore different perspectives and experiences.
Paying close attention to details and willingness to take risks brought me in my early 20s to Turkey and Italy, where I was heavily influenced by the work of other artists and musicians. As I grew older, I continued to evolve, exploring new styles and techniques. I became also interested in Visionary Art, a movement that focused on the irrational and the subconscious.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bransha.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/branshagautier/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bransha.gautier
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChzI40qAxQB/
