Tal R: The Sum

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.

Supported by: The Danish Embassy

The Danish Arts Council Artist's biography Tal R was born in 1967 in Israel and has lived and worked in Copenhagen since completing his studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen in 2000. From 2005 – 2007, Tal R was a guest professor at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Recent solo shows include Tal R: The Look, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Toyko; Working hard during the day naked at night, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo; Tal R, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim (all 2007). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions since 1992, with recent shows including Effiges, Modern Art, London and The Believers, MASS Moca, Massachussets (2007); Mother with Jonathan Meese, Bortolami-Dayan, NY (2006).

Tal R
The Sum