Failure as Fuel: On Berbrain’s Embrace of the Uncertain
Installation View: Failure as Fuel: On Berbrain’s Embrace of the Uncertain, 26 April - 1 June 2025, Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok Photo Courtesy of Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok
Tang Contemporary Art proudly presents Berbrain's first solo exhibition in Bangkok, Failure as Fuel: On Berbrain's Embrace of the Uncertain. Working primarily with oil, pigment sticks, solid markers, and spray on canvas, Berbrain constructs fragmented, open-ended narratives that privilege process over resolution. His works function not as definitive statements, but as moments suspended within an ongoing, evolving story. By capturing scenes that resemble the aftermath or midpoint of a battlefield, Berbrain leaves viewers questioning: what happened? What's next? Has something failed, or succeeded? The artist refuses to offer clear outcomes, instead inviting the audience to participate in redefining what success or failure might mean.
anctuary of Dreams | 200 x 200 cm | Mixed media on canvas | 2025
In a culture that celebrates clarity and completion, failure remains one of the most radical ideas for an artist to explore. We're conditioned to view failure as a fall, a flaw, a deviation from the ideal. But what if failure is not the opposite of success, but its necessary companion? What if that detour is where the real work begins? Berbrain does not treat failure as defeat but frames it as possibility. His practice begins with questions: What does it mean to face fear head-on? What happens when we lean into uncertainty, rather than escape it? His paintings carry the quiet, charged energy of risk—not the dramatic kind that demands attention, but the everyday courage to continue without knowing the outcome.
Installation View: Failure as Fuel: On Berbrain’s Embrace of the Uncertain, 26 April - 1 June 2025, Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok Photo Courtesy of Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok
This exhibition collapses the binary between failure and success. Berbrain's visual language, rich with dreamlike symbols, dynamic gestures, and bodies mid-metamorphosis, suggests that to be alive is to be in flux. Nothing is settled. Every failure carries the seed of a new direction, a new question, a new possibility. Far from a collapse, failure becomes a space of rehearsal, invention, and play. In Berbrain's universe, falling short is a strategy, not a setback. It is in the friction of effort—the slips, the doubts, the internal monsters—that something real takes shape. Fear runs parallel throughout these works, not cast aside or conquered, but absorbed into the process. Fear becomes material: a starting point rather than a stop sign. Whether exploring internal struggles or fantastical worlds where danger and joy intertwine, Berbrain treats fear as a source of momentum rather than paralysis.
Break the Chain (Anything is Possible) | 100 x 100 cm | Mixed media on canvas | 2024
This is not an exhibition about overcoming failure. It's about staying with it long enough to understand what it reveals. It's about embracing the uncertain not in spite of its difficulty, but because of it. Berbrain's work speaks to a shared condition in contemporary life: the demand to appear confident, composed, and perpetually successful. His art cuts through that illusion, creating space for the unspoken—fear of falling, the weight of trying again, and the strength it takes to risk vulnerability in public. The paintings offer not just reflection, but invitation. They suggest that failure might not be something to avoid but something to move toward. That within conscious, wholehearted failure lies a form of freedom that conventional success cannot provide. Berbrain's art offers space: to feel, to question, to fall and get up again. In this, the work does not merely represent failure—it reclaims it.
Courtsey of Artist and Tang Contemporary Art
About the Artist
Bernandi Desanda (Berbrain)
b.1996, Tangerang, Indonesia
Bernandi Desanda or Berbrain was graduated from Indonesian Institute of The Arts, Yogyakarta, Faculty of Design, Department of Visual Communication Design in 2021.
Since 2015, Bernandi has chosen to focus on visual arts, particularly painting. After graduating, Bernandi decided to pursue a career as a full time artist and currently lived in Yogyakarta.
He is also recognized as Berbrain. He is an artist whose creative journey is rooted in imagination, The name "Berbrain" encapsulates the notion of "Bernandi's thoughts," elegantly combining 'Ber' and 'Brain’. An undeniable passion for animals, monsters, and all things uncanny courses through Berbrain's creative veins.
This fervor consistently finds its expression in the art he produces today, a majority of which draws inspiration from these captivating realms. Notably, the enchanting universe of cartoon characters also contributes to the tapestry of his creations. It's within this artistic landscape that Bernandi skillfully weaves together the essence of monsters, animals, and animated personas, breathing life into a symphony of new and captivating species.
About Tang Contemporary Art
Since its founding in Bangkok in 1997, Tang Contemporary Art has opened 8 spaces in Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul and Singapore to promote the development of experimental art in different regions. In the past 27 years, Tang Contemporary Art has organized groundbreaking exhibitions in its gallery spaces, and also cooperated with important art institutions in China and abroad to accomplish outstanding art projects. The gallery strives to initiate dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and institutions working both locally and internationally. A roster of groundbreaking exhibitions has earned Tang Contemporary Art internationally renowned recognition, establishing its status as a pioneer of the contemporary art scene in Asia.
As one of China’s most influential contemporary art platforms, Tang Contemporary Art maintains a high standard of exhibition programming. Tang Contemporary Art represents or collaborates with leading figures in international contemporary art, including Ai Weiwei, Huang Yongping, Shen Yuan, Zhu Jinshi, Chen Danqing, Liu Qinghe, Liu Xiaodong, Chen Shaoxiong, Wang Yuping, Shen Ling, Shen Liang, Wu Yi, Xia Xiaowan, He Duoling, Mao Xuhui, Wang Huangsheng, Yang Jiechang, Tan Ping, Wang Du，Yan Lei, Yue Minjun, Wang Jianwei, Yangjiang Group, Zheng Guogu, Lin Yilin, Sun Yuan&Peng Yu, Qin Ga, Wang Qingsong, Yin Zhaoyang, Feng Yan, Guo Wei, Chen Wenbo, Ling Jian, Qin Qi, Yang Yong, Peng Wei, He An, Zhao Zhao, Xu Qu, Chen Yujun, Chen Yufan, Xue Feng, Cai Lei, Li Qing, Wang Sishun, Xu Xiaoguo, Lí Wei, Liu Yujia, Wu Wei, Yang Bodu, You Yong, Li Erpeng, Jade Ching-yuk Ng, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Adel Abdessemed, Niki de Saint Phalle, AES+F , Michael Zelehosk, Jonas Burgert, Christian Lemmerz, Michael Kvium, Sakarin Krue-On, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Natee Utarit, Kitti Narod, Gongkan, Entang Wiharso, Heri Dono, Nam June Paik, Park Seungmo, Jae Yong Kim, Diren Lee, Dinh Q. Lê, Rodel Tapaya, Jigger Cruz, Ayka Go, Raffy Napay, H.H.Lim, Etsu Egami, etc.
This exhibition opened on April 26th and ends on June 1st 2025. There was an opening reception on April 26that 4 pm.
For more information about this exhibition and others at Tang Contemporary Art, please visit their site here. The gallery can also be found on Facebook, Artsy, Instagram, anf YouTube.
