Tahnee Lonsdale Mew, 2023, Oil on canvas, 139.7 x 127 cm
Working between the figurative and the abstract, Tahnee Lonsdale produces paintings that are intimate, agonised, tender and formidable. Developed through an intuitive process of drawing in response to particular emotional states, her canvases are populated by distinctively feminine forms whose swooping, structural physicality is an assertion of both power and vulnerability. Recent paintings feature illustrate the artist’s engagement with spiritual practices, the metaphysical or mysticism, and the insights they have revealed to her. Additionally, narrative is driven by characters and their interactions, whilst formal composition and framing equally build drama. Tahnee Lonsdale’s fantastical narrative tableaux, from the quotidian to the cosmic, are privy to compositions that convey intimate and passionate extremes while their elements evolve, reflecting the flux of a mental state faced with our changing world.
Across Lonsdale’s practice, emotional experience is rendered as both private moment and public rite: a process in which interior life is turned outward and the individual self is split into multiple bodies entwined with or superimposed upon one another. Layering colour within restricted palettes, establishing depth through blocks and textures rather than gradations of tone, Lonsdale modulates acute autobiographical introspection into moments of collective affinity. A graduate of Byam Shaw School of Art in London, Lonsdale has exhibited in solo shows in London, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles, where she is currently based.
Recent solo exhibitions include Our Humans, Fabian Lang, Zurich, Switzerland (2022), True Romance, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2022) Under The Shell at Cob Gallery, London (2021); Now You See Me, Mine Project, Hong Kong (2021). Previous solo exhibitions include: Something Other Than This, De Buck Gallery, New York, US (2020); flowers & knots, Pt. 2 Gallery, Oakland, CA, US, (2020); Tender Loin, Dellasposa, London, UK, (2019); tear here, 0.0 LA, Los Angeles, US (2019); Furnished with Roberta Moore, Herrick Gallery, London, UK (2017).
Group exhibitions include Observation, Perottin, Dubai (2022); Don't Fuck With Our Human, Fabian Lang, Zurich, Switzerland (2022); 12 Artists, Harpers, New York, 2020; No Time Like The Present, Public Gallery, London, UK (2020); A Show Of Hands, September Gallery, New York, US (2020); Foam Corp, Los Angeles, US (2020); Star Goddess Island, Wonzimer, Los Angeles, CA, US (2020); LA: Night and Day, The Lodge and Cura, LA (2020); Run Straight Through, Torrance Art Museum (2019); Rainy-day Canape, LM Gallery, Rome, Italy (2019); Oneiric Landscapes, 5 Car Garage, Los Angeles, US, (2019); LA Women, Saatchi Art, LA (2017).
Art fair presentations include Cob Gallery, The Armory Show, New York (forthcoming); Night Gallery, Frieze London, UK (2022); Cob Gallery, Tomo Campbell + Tahnee Lonsdale, UNTITLED Art, Miami Beach, US (2021); De Buck Gallery, UNTITLED Art, Miami Beach, 2021; Night Gallery, Frieze LA, US (2021); Night Gallery, NADA, Miami Beach (2021); De Buck, UNTITLED Art, Miami Beach, US (2020); Monti 8, Art Verona, Italy (2019); Zona Maco, De Buck Gallery, Mexico (2017).