Tal R: Rose See

Spanning a wide range of media including painting, collage, print, textile and sculpture, Tal R (b. 1967) creates atmospheric compositions that combine a childlike openness with the slippery elusiveness of the dream world. The Israeli-born Danish artist’s luminous and exuberantly coloured surfaces are the result of collecting kolbojnik – a Hebrew term meaning ‘leftovers’ – which reflects his process of mining existing imagery, patterns and arrangements. Evocative of Henri Matisse’s emblematic cut-outs and interiors, Edvard Munch’s Symbolism, or Mark Rothko’s glowing fields of colour, Tal R absorbs a diverse range of Modernist influences, instilling them with new life and giving rise to a world beyond reality. His work revels in its inability to control meaning as it draws the viewer into unknown realms.

‘It is hard to think of a contemporary painter who has ranged through so many kinds of imagery […] and also been able to work so many variations on each theme or motif he has handled […] Tal R is prodigal in his gifts, but he knows better than to accept them uncritically. No wonder he is one of today’s most salient painters.’

B. Schwabsky, in Tal R, London: Lund Humphries, 2019