Tala Madani
Tala Madani's (b. 1981, Tehran) work brings together various modes of critique about gender, particularly masculine and feminine stereotypes, as well as questioning westernised idealistic notions of childhood, family and the art historical canon. Her work is inflected with a peevish sense of humour and brings to bear basic human feelings and emotions, such as anxiety, anger, fear, isolation, paranoia, envy and lust. Madani received her MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2006.
Upcoming solo shows include Biscuits, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2022). Current and recent solo shows include: Kunstmuseum Den Haag (KM21), The Hague (2022); Longlati Foundation, Shanghai (2021); Chalk Mark, Pilar Corrias, London (2021); Skid Mark, Pilar Corrias, London (2021); Start Museum, Shanghai (2020); Mam Project 027: Tala Madani, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2019); Tala Madani, Vienna Secessions, Vienna (2019); Oven Light, Portikus, Frankfurt (2019); Lewben Art Foundation Playlist for Mo Museum "Lewben Playlist for Mo", MO Museum, Vilnius (2018); Tala Madani, La Panacée, Montpellier (2017); First Light, organised in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (curated by Henriette Huldisch and Kelly Shindler), MIT Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (2016); Tala Madani, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2014); Tala Madani, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2014); Rip Image, Moderna Museet Malmö & Stockholm (2013); The Jinn, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam (2011).
Selected group exhibitions include: La Morsure des Termites (The Termites’ Bites), Palais de Tokyo (2023); Keep Calm and Give a Shit, Buk-SeMA (Seoul Museum of Art (2023); In First Person Plural, MACRO Museum (2023); Let The Sunshine In, Pilar Corrias (2023); Trouble wandering (to eternity), Kasteel Wijlre Museum, Wijlre, The Netherlands (2022); In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination in the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, DE (2022); In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy, The Contemporary Austin, Austin (2022); Anticorps, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020); Radical Figures: painting in the New Millennium, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2020); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); The Great Acceleration: Art in the Anthropocene, Taipei Biennial (curated by Nicholas Bourriaud), Taipei (2014); Made in L.A. 2014, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); Where are we Now?, 5th Marrakech Biennale, Marrakech (2014); PLAY! Recapturing the Radical Imaginiation, Göteborg Biennial, Göteborg (2013); The Future Generation Prize, Venice; (2013); Speech Matters, Danish Pavilion at the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venice (2011); The Great New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2010); 4th Tirana International Contemporary Art Biennial, Tirana (2009); Greater New Younger than Jesus, New Museum, New York (2009).
Madani was awarded the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting (2013), the De Volkskrant Art Award (2012), shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Centre (2012), the Van den Berch van Heemstede Stichting Fellowship (2008), and the Kees Verwey Fellowship (2007). She was artist in residence at the British School of Rome (2010), and The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam (2007).