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until 21.10. | #1524ARTatBerlin | Contemporary Fine Arts presents from 9th September 2017 the exhibition “Babylonia”, with drawings by the Danish artist Tal R (b. 1967 in Tel Aviv). This is the artist’s twelfth exhibition with the gallery.
A few years ago, Tal R asked friends and students to send him photos of the façades and storefront displays of sex shops and nightclubs from around the world. Tal R also took photos of his own, and over the years an archive of over a thousand photos came into being, serving as the basis for his series of drawings and paintings titled “Sex Shops.”
In the series, Tal R flirts only in part with the scandalous and lewd nature of the subjects; what lies behind the sex shop façades often cannot be seen. Instead, the works serve much more as metaphors for viewing and understanding images. Their meaning reveals itself to viewers first through curiosity for that which is concealed or cloaked – the “back room,” as Tal R calls it – allowing their imaginations to wander.
At the same time, the series can be understood as a sort of homage to a slowly dying breed, as nostalgia for bygone cities with erotic shops and strip clubs, massage parlors and cabarets, all of which are disappearing in the face of the increasing digitalization of our lives.
This exhibition is devoted exclusively to the works on paper from this series. The drawings included are not to be understood as sketches or preparatory drawings. Rather, for the artist, they exist equally alongside his works on canvas, and in fact allow him to explore more elaborate approaches.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue will be published by Snoeck with a text by Siegfried Gohr.
Exhibition period: Saturday, 9th September to Saturday, 21st October 2017
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Image caption: Tal R, Extasy Club, 2016, Buntstift und Tusche auf Papier, 34 x 29 cm
Exhibition: Tal R – Babylonia – Contemporary Fine Arts | Contemporary Art – Kunst in Berlin – ART at Berlin
