Camden Arts Centre

Tal R

02 May - 29 Jun 2008

© Tal R, Name, Year and Depature, 2007
copyright the artist, courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
TAL R
"The Sum"

Top Five Exhibitions, The Independent.
Tal R fills the galleries with a new series of wild and colourful paintings and an installation of over 200 etchings. He challenges the fundamentals of painting using a collage of shapes and imagery and a reduced colour palette.
Born in Israel and spearheading a painting revival in Denmark where he lives, Tal R is of the same generation of painters as Peter Doig and Chris Ofili.
Tal R uses seven colours: black, white, pink, green, red, yellow and brown. He focuses on graphic mark-making and collage, using characteristic blobs and small ‘worms’ of oil paint; he often applies paint directly from the tube.
The overall effect is childlike – yet their lively surfaces hide the seriousness of their content. Floor-based coloured ‘pedestals’ present paintings as sculpture.
Tal R’s influences include the performances of Bas Jan Ader, the dark history of The Holocaust, as well as comic books and children’s doodling.
Many of Tal R's self published artist’s books will be on display at Camden Arts Centre, and a new film in which he stars, ‘A Ship is not an Island’ (2007).
A beautifully illustrated catalogue is available from the Bookshop.
 

Tags: Bas Jan Ader, Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, Tal R