Thomas Trum’s practice stems from conceptual and material interests. Inspired by Sol Lewitt’s integral Wall Drawings, in which he explored countless variations of applying drawn lines onto walls, Trum plays with Lewitt’s concepts of Minimalism and Conceptualism in his own work. Lewitt said of this approach, “When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art,”
While Trum’s practice is incredibly physical, he pre-plans the execution of each piece in as few strokes as possible. For example, the work installed at Drake Mini Bar was completed in two ‘marker’ strokes. These signature ‘Marker Drawings’ use a custom super sized felt pen he developed for the application of paint that he mixes himself. Trum dedicates extensive time to material research developing special paint, colours, and techniques to apply it, constantly experimenting with new tools to push the boundaries of the medium. He describes paint as his muse, whether it is in small-scale research or expanding public spaces with his colorful large-scale work.