Tal R, Old confused gun, 2008, Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.

Tal R, Installation view Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, 2009, Photo: Martin Runeborg.

Portrait photo of the artist Tal R, Photo: Territorium.

Tal R, Beach Teenager, 2009, Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.

Tal R, Muller, 2009, Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.

Magasin 3
Stockholm Konsthall
Frihamnen, SE – 115 56
+46 8 545 680 40
Stockholm
Tal R
Old Confused
October 2-December 13, 2009

Tal R. He is currently Denmark’s most internationally acclaimed artist. He describes his work as “Kolbojnik”, Hebrew for leftovers: ”I have a pot on the boil all the time and am continuously throwing new material into it”

His art is brightly colored and has a deliberately naïve, abstract quality. Tal R is probably best known as a painter but works in a number of media: sculpture, drawing, printmaking, installation, video and textiles. Currently he is also developing the clothing brand MoonSpoonSaloon.

Richard Julin, the exhibition’s curator says, “In exhibition form his work becomes a voyage of discovery into a universe with a very direct expressiveness, which celebrates playfulness, spontaneity, imagination and creativity. At Magasin 3 we are showing a unique spatial arrangement with new paintings, sculptures and a great many other objects. In short, an attempt at giving an overview of Tal R’s œuvre as it presents itself right now.”

Tal R was born in Israel in 1967 and grew up in Denmark. He lives in Copenhagen, where he also has his studio. Solo exhibitions include: 2009, You laugh an ugly laugh, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel; Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen; Teenager Beach, CAC Malaga, Malaga, ES; Armes de Chine, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, GB; Prints by Tal R, Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Holstebro, DK; 2008, Tal R, Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, MEX; Prince Fruit, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, AT; Flovmand, Galerie Haas, Zürich / Zurich, CH: You laugh an ugly laugh, Giò Marconi, Mailand / Milan, IT; Adieu Interessant, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; TAL R: Masters and Method, Niels Borch Jensen, Berlin; 2007, TAL R: The Look, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokio / Tokyo, JP; Working hard during the day naked at night, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, BRA; 2008 Centro Cultural dos Correios, Rio de Janeiro, BRA; TAL R: The Sum, Louisiana Museum for Moderne Kunst, Humlebæk, DK; 2008 Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht; Camden Arts Centre, London, GB; TAL R, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim; 2006, Mother, (mit / with Jonathan Meese), Bortolami-Dayan, New York, USA; Le peintre n'est pas là, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, USA; Fruits, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Gold is over, Sabine Knust, München / Munich; minus, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, GB; House of Prince, Gary Tatintsian Gallery Inc., Moskau / Moskow, RUS; 2005, House of Prince, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Galerie Elisabeth und Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck, AT; Mor, Statens Museum for Kunst, (mit / with Jonathan Meese) Kopenhagen / Copenhagen, DK; Pink Yellow Brown Black Green White Red, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Kopenhagen / Copenhagen, DK; 2004, Figur, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Last Drawing before Mars, LFL Gallery, New York, USA; House of Prince, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, IR.

He is represented by Victoria Miro Gallery in London, Zach Feuer Gallery in New York and Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin.

Tal R, Lord Tuesday, 2008-2009, Photo: Martin Runeborg, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.

Tal R, Installation view Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, 2009, Photo: Martin Runeborg.

Tal R, The Igen, Photo: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.

Tal R, Adieu Interessant (green), 2008, Mischtechnik auf Leinwand, 250 x 250 cm, Foto: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, © Tal R, Sammlung Essl, Inv. Nr. 5872.

Tal R, Untitled (House of Prince), 2004, Paper collage, glass, 60 x 66,5 cm, Foto: Mischa Nawrata, Wien, © Tal R, Sammlung Essl, Inv. Nr. 5419/115.

Tal R, Beast Step Down, 2008, Oil on canvas, 185 x 185 cm, Foto: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, © Tal R, Sammlung Essl, Inv. Nr. 5870.

Essl Museum
An der Donau-Au 1
+43-2243-370 50
Vienna
Large Hall
tal r: Prince Fruit
June 13-August 24, 2008

Tal Rosenzweig, better known by his pseudonym Tal R, was born in Tel Aviv in 1967 and lives and works in Copenhagen. In 2005, he started teaching a master class in painting at Düsseldorf academy. Tal R collects, collages, and playfully mixes styles and contexts into a very idiosyncratic and complex pictorial language that has gained him international recognition. His repertoire includes painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, and assemblage, as well as film, textile art, fashion design, and artist’s books. Inspiration sources include music, comic strip aesthetics, television, and graphics of old video games.

Two artwork series, an artist’s book, and a look at recent works from the studio of Tal R await visitors to this exhibition.

A highlight of the exhibition is the 191-part series House of Prince, created by the artist over several years (2000-2004). The many small-format works — oil on canvas, wood and paper as well as collages and material assemblages with light bulbs, matches or crown caps — are marked by a similar basic layout. Solid bands across the bottom and top and triangles on both sides delineate an octagonal area in the centre. This is the pictorial space in which Tal R plays with pictogram-like shapes, letters and symbols. The abstracts he creates have many stories.

This is the first time the complete 24-part FRUITS series of bronzes and sculptures (2005-2006) are displayed in a museum context. Tal R´s sculptures are composed of fruits, vegetables and objects that seem to come from a waste bin (such as old shoes, bottles, hats, beer cans, etc.). Perishable food and waste products are conserved in the form of sculptures with a classical air to them and thus saved from perishing.

The artist creates a link in the form of an artist’s book between the two groups of works that are so different in format. It is something reminiscent of a photo session to guide us through a flood of his own exhibition publications and bookworks, through his working space and into his pictorial world. The essay was written by Ferdinand Ahm Krag. All 92 pages of the book available at the Essl Museum’s bookshop are printed in blue.

The exhibition was curated by Christine Humpl.

Tal R, Untitled (House of Prince), 2004, Oil, light bulbs on panel, 80 x 80 x 5,7 cm, Foto: Jochen Littkemann, Courtesy Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, © Tal R, Sammlung Essl, Inv. Nr. 5419/187.