Tal R
02 May - 06 Jun 2015
TAL R
The Oolong
2 May - 6 June 2015
CFA is pleased to present „The Oolong“, the tenth solo exhibition with the 1967 Tel Aviv born, Copenhagen based artist TAL R, who has been represented by the gallery since 1999.
His newest series of drawings and paintings portray modern odalisques. Young women with loose hair in ornamental, cluttered interiors recline in coloured robes or striped pullovers; a few are exposed on colourful carpets or poised upon patterned bedding, smoking and confident. The interiors painted with a mixture of pigment and rabbit glue on untreated canvas are reminiscent in their expressionistic, abstracted, childlike style of bohemian studio scenes, of the painters of German Expressionism, their flatness calling Matisse to mind.
Through their caps and sneakers, their white socks or sweatshirts, these painted women reveal themselves however to be utterly contemporary individuals.
TAL R’s artistic process begins with the moment when he asks these women - for the most part unknown to him - to pose as models. The fundamental tone of his paintings reveals a perceptible, corresponding uncertainty between painter and model. This is reflected in a self-stated, technically astute “heavy-handedness” - the often displaced perspective, the flat colour application - , which lend the paintings their sheer intensity.
The female figures become one with their patterned and brightly decorated surroundings, virtually dissolving within them. The artist treats the elements of his compositions un-hierarchically, the interior is equally as important as the painted figure, “The face, the eyes, the cushions, the window and the carpet, they carry all information and meaning.”
Once the artist has discussed the concept with his model over a cup of Oolong tea, he sketches her using pink paper from his suitcase in hotel rooms, private bedrooms, in front of mirrors or in corridors, in order to transfer her later into a composition upon the canvas, alone in his studio. Painting with strong pigments and quick drying rabbit glue forces him to work speedily.
„ I wish to create concrete spaces, in which the experience is completely abstract.“
A newspaper supplement (edition) will be published in “Der Freitag” on the occasion of the exhibition.
The Oolong
2 May - 6 June 2015
CFA is pleased to present „The Oolong“, the tenth solo exhibition with the 1967 Tel Aviv born, Copenhagen based artist TAL R, who has been represented by the gallery since 1999.
His newest series of drawings and paintings portray modern odalisques. Young women with loose hair in ornamental, cluttered interiors recline in coloured robes or striped pullovers; a few are exposed on colourful carpets or poised upon patterned bedding, smoking and confident. The interiors painted with a mixture of pigment and rabbit glue on untreated canvas are reminiscent in their expressionistic, abstracted, childlike style of bohemian studio scenes, of the painters of German Expressionism, their flatness calling Matisse to mind.
Through their caps and sneakers, their white socks or sweatshirts, these painted women reveal themselves however to be utterly contemporary individuals.
TAL R’s artistic process begins with the moment when he asks these women - for the most part unknown to him - to pose as models. The fundamental tone of his paintings reveals a perceptible, corresponding uncertainty between painter and model. This is reflected in a self-stated, technically astute “heavy-handedness” - the often displaced perspective, the flat colour application - , which lend the paintings their sheer intensity.
The female figures become one with their patterned and brightly decorated surroundings, virtually dissolving within them. The artist treats the elements of his compositions un-hierarchically, the interior is equally as important as the painted figure, “The face, the eyes, the cushions, the window and the carpet, they carry all information and meaning.”
Once the artist has discussed the concept with his model over a cup of Oolong tea, he sketches her using pink paper from his suitcase in hotel rooms, private bedrooms, in front of mirrors or in corridors, in order to transfer her later into a composition upon the canvas, alone in his studio. Painting with strong pigments and quick drying rabbit glue forces him to work speedily.
„ I wish to create concrete spaces, in which the experience is completely abstract.“
A newspaper supplement (edition) will be published in “Der Freitag” on the occasion of the exhibition.