Simone Thiele

*1965, Basel, CH. Lives and works in Basel, CH.

Simone Thiele’s paintings investigate the dynamic interplay of line, surface, and color. Working within a reductive visual language, she explores how pictorial elements negotiate presence, hierarchy, and spatial relationships. Her compositions emerge through a process of layering in which lines and surfaces continually redefine their roles in relation to one another. What initially appears dominant may recede, while a concealed layer asserts itself through color, texture, rhythm, or movement. Through these shifting relationships, complex spatial and perceptual tensions unfold.

Thiele develops her work in series, each grounded in a specific conceptual premise. Formal qualities – such as fluidity and rigidity, density and openness, lightness and weight, curvature and angularity – serve as points of departure. As successive layers are introduced, a nuanced dialogue emerges between these distinct visual characteristics. The painting becomes a site of negotiation in which elements interact, respond, and transform one another.

Central to Thiele’s practice is an attentiveness to the agency of each formal element. Surfaces expand organically from within the composition or establish connections across multiple points, always in relation to the format and underlying structures of the work. Equally significant is the internal dynamic of a line or form: how it guides the gaze, enters the pictorial space, and establishes its presence within the whole.

Underlying these formal investigations are questions that resonate beyond the visual field. What effect does one element have upon another? What conditions, demands, or possibilities arise through their encounter? How can differing presences coexist despite inherent hierarchies? Can equilibrium emerge from asymmetry, and can contrasting forces remain mutually sustaining? While such considerations invite philosophical reflection, Thiele’s approach remains fundamentally intuitive. Her paintings are not illustrations of theoretical ideas but the result of a direct and material engagement with the possibilities of painting itself.

The artist describes her work as an exploration of relationships: “For me, painting is a place of encounter between color and line. My interest lies in the autonomy of a color, the movement of a line, and the multifaceted relationships that emerge between them.” Within reduced pictorial spaces, colors, planes, and lines become active participants, entering into a dynamic dialogue of proximity, resistance, balance, and tension. Through overlaps, distinctions, and moments of convergence, questions of weight, hierarchy, and equivalence come to the fore. The resulting compositions seek not resolution, but a state of dynamic equilibrium in which diverse forces coexist. Painting thus becomes an open field in which presence, resistance, and harmony can be experienced simultaneously—a means not of representation, but of making relationships visible.

Originally trained as a 3D polydesigner, Thiele worked in the field of three-dimensional design before dedicating herself fully to painting in 2010. She further developed her artistic practice through four years of study at the Visual Art School Basel (2013–2017). Her work has been presented in numerous national and international exhibitions. She lives and works in Basel.