Tal R: Chimney school of sculpture
Tal R: Chimney school of sculpture
Information
An exhibition of new work by the Copenhagen-based artist, accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with essay by Tom Morton, view an online version.
Tal R has often used the word 'kolbojnik', meaning leftovers in Hebrew, to describe his practice of sourcing and collecting a wide range of imagery, figurative and abstract, from high and low culture. Installed collectively, Tal R’s works can give the impression of a group show, as adherence to a single aesthetic style is eschewed in favour of a non-hierarchical exploration of material and form. This is explored in the exhibition, which stages sculptures alongside furniture works and a series of paintings and works on paper.
The lower gallery is populated by a disparate collection of ceramic, creature-like sculptures. Tal R has employed a process of Raku firing, an ancient technique which originated in sixteenth-century Japan. The process produces notoriously unpredictable results – the clay’s surface is blackened or whitened according to the intensity of its exposure to the smoke and is liable to crack or even explode, a volatility that has drawn the artist to the material.
Alongside the Raku sculptures are a number of minimalist sculptures of fabric-covered wood. These larger-than-life flumes, with candy-cane stripes and built-in air vents, call to mind to the industrial chimney. However, these works are divorced from any functioning system. Instead they suggest a joyfulness that rebukes a factory logic of inputs and outputs, and embody a stranger and less quantifiable process.
Tal R is also known for producing unique, hand-made sofas, or ‘opiumbeds’, which are made from old and new rugs sourced throughout Scandinavia and treated with paint and dye in the studio. A number of these patchworked pieces of furniture provide another perspective from which to view – or from which to be viewed by – the sculptures. Exploring the domestic quality of furniture as an artistic medium, Tal R plays with the boundary between art and life. Neither the practical purpose of these works nor their aesthetic qualities take categorical precedence. The idea of the opium bed suggests a hazy, latent space of unfettered thinking, the functional object delineating a non-functional space of thought.
The upstairs floor of the gallery space is taken up with a self-contained corridor structure stretched over with canvas material. Within it are paintings and works on paper, all depicting a closed blind. Repeated across the walls of an enclosed space, this representation of shuttered vision conveys a visceral sense of interiority and positions the viewer in an ambiguous space that is neither inside nor outside.
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March 19 2022
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‘I'm not at all interested in the idea of learning outside of making a great painting. I'm not interested in the psychology, I'm not interested in being philosophical about it. I'm just interested in creating great new work. And whatever takes me there, I'll do it.’ Ben Luke, The Art Newspaper -
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June 18 2020
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News story
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February 26 2020
Selected works by Tal R are on view at Victoria Miro New York – Office
Paintings on view (until 25 April 2020) include a number of works featuring images of family and friends, such as Emma in drawing room, 2018, and still lifes of casually arranged everyday objects, such as Yellow monkey, 2019. 534 West 24th Street New York, NY 10011, USA -
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October 24 2019
Tal R: Men Who Can’t Sit on Horses at Magasin III, Jaffa
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Tal R: eventually all museums will be ships at Hastings Contemporary
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April 13 2019
Hastings Contemporary’s inaugural exhibitions to include a presentation of works by Tal R
Exploring the rich tradition of painting in modern and contemporary art, Hastings Contemporary's inaugural exhibitions (from 6 July 2019) include a presentation of works by Tal R. Hastings -
Preview
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February 2 2019
Skye Sherwin writes about Tal R’s House Red in The Guardian
'The Danish painter evokes a sense of loss with a colourful palette and sharp geometric lines.' The Guardian Skye Sherwin -
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January 17 2019
Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, Tal R: The Men Who Fell from Earth at Espoo Museum of Modern Art
The exhibition (30 January–7 July 2019) features installations co-created by the three artist friends and colleagues, a video piece, as well as an overview of each artist’s recent work. EMMA, Espoo, Finland -
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October 5 2018
Tal R: The Minute at Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
A major exhibition (5 October–16 November 2018) of paintings and drawings, including recent works, by the artist. University of the Arts, Philadelphia -
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Tal R: this is not Detroit at MOCA Detroit
The intricate, multipart installation (11 May – 29 July 2018) manifests the artist’s fantasy of Detroit. Seven large-scale paintings, rendered in a rich and moody palate of blues, depict the artist’s vision of specific Detroit neighborhoods he has never visited. MOCA, Detroit -
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May 10 2018
Vogue writes about Tal R: this is not Detroit at MOCA Detroit
Detroit has always played an outsized role in the American imagination. It was Motown. It was rock n' roll. In its boom days it was Motor City, land of the American dream and the best of American manufacturing, an industry that enabled highways, suburbs, road trips, and our willful sprawl across the continent. Julia Felsenthal, Vogue -
Channel
November 16 2017
Tal R in his own words
'It doesn't matter how conceptual a work is, it's still the idea that you're looking through a keyhole.' On the occasion of his exhibitions Academy of Tal R at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (until 21 January 2018), and Sexshops at Victoria Miro (until 20 December 2017), Tal R talks about his work in a video interview with Elephant. Film ©/courtesy Elephant -
Review
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November 15 2017
Frieze reviews Tal R: Academy of Tal R at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
'Figures are reticent: they walk away, turn their backs, sit at a remove and ebb beneath roughly applied tints.' Harry Thorne, Frieze -
Exhibition
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October 14 2017
Tal R: Academy of Tal R at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Touring from Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition (14 October 2017 – 21 January 2018) features works from the mid-1990s to the present. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam -
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September 20 2017
Tal R talks to AnOther ahead of his exhibition, Sexshops
'These sorts of places are almost two-dimensional, because often the windows are blacked out… You only know if you enter – otherwise it is up to the imagination.' Holly Black, AnOther -
Review
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June 24 2017
The Quietus reviews Tal R: Academy of Tal R at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
"His paintings are often short bursts of intense optical energy that fizz on the canvas, visual zaps that do not appear to interrogate much of what has gone on before in art history." John Quin, The Quietus -
Film
Posted
May 23 2017
Tal R: a film by Louisiana Channel
In the run up to his major exhibition, Academy of Tal R at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, the artist was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg and Marc-Christoph Wagner, who spent six months with him while he was in the process of making his grand series of railcar paintings, Habakuk. Louisiana Channel -
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May 20 2017
Tal R: Academy of Tal R at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
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March 21 2017
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September 14 2016
Tal R interviewed in Collectors Agenda
"For me, any studio is a precious place. I like to compare it to the brain." Michael Wuerges, Collectors Agenda -
Publications
April 23 2015
Tal R: Chimney school of sculpture
Tal R: Chimney school of sculptureNot currently available£ 20.000 in cart -
Gallery Exhibition
13 March - 17 April 2014
Tal R: Walk Towards Hare Hill
An exhibition of a cycle of distinctive plein air paintings by the Copenhagen-based artist. Walk towards Hare Hill comprises thirty-seven works created near the artist's summerhouse in northern Denmark, over... Victoria Miro Mayfair -
Gallery Exhibition
12 October - 12 November 2011
Tal R: Science Fiction
Victoria Miro Gallery presents Science Fiction, an exhibition of new paintings by Tal R. The works in this exhibition mark a major development in the Danish artist's practice. Known for... Victoria Miro Gallery II -
Gallery Exhibition
21 May - 25 July 2009
Tal R: armes de chine
'armes de chine refers to a classic manual about weapons from ancient China. These objects, which once had a very specific and practical purpose, now several hundred years later seem... Victoria Miro Gallery I -
Gallery Exhibition
13 May - 23 June 2006
Tal R: Minus
The Victoria Miro Gallery presents Minus, an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Tal R. The Danish artist is best known for his exuberant and deceptively simple... Victoria Miro Gallery I -
Gallery Exhibition
17 May - 14 June 2003
Tal R: Lords of Kolbojnik
'My art always finds its point of departure in contemporary life… I'd say that most of my works are about things I've picked up in all imaginable places other than... Victoria Miro Gallery I