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The artist is best known for her socio-critical conceptual paintings as well as her recent works. The latter include large-scale paintings and drawings that combine traditional paint with printed media. She extensively experiments with visual idioms and the technical possibilities offered by drawing, painting, and technology to advance the understanding of the fluidity of mediums and paradigms. Her obsessive and continually evolving language addresses the dynamics of our cultural memories. She establishes seemingly random, free-flowing systems of codes, signifiers, and energy fields to create a stage for expressing farewell to history and moving towards yet unseen future.
Tamara K.E. is a Georgian-born German artist who emerged from the Düsseldorf art scene in the early 2000s. Where she was based from 1997 onwards. K.E. studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Meisterschüler Alfonso Huppi) and graduating in 2004. Since 2010, K.E. has lived and worked in New York and Dusseldorf.
The span of the artist's career over two decades includes the following work series:
K.E. represented Georgia at the 50th Venice Biennale and was invited to the 1st Prague Biennial. She has participated in shows in the U.S. and Europe and has exhibited at venues such as Haus Huth, Daimler Contemporary Berlin; Sprengel Museum, Hanover; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Central House of Artists, Moscow; CoBrA Museum, Amsterdam; Van der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal; Kunsthalle Hamburg, Kunstahalle Göppingen and elsewhere. Her work-group "Next Comes Democracy," created in collaboration with Hans Mayer Gallery (Düsseldorf), is on permanent display at Daimler Contemporary Headquarters at Haus Huth, Berlin.
Tamara K.E. has received several art awards, including the Kunstpreis der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken (Germany), the UBS Art Award (Switzerland), and The European Prize for Painting (Belgium). She has been nominated for the Fountainhead Artist Residency in Miami, the residency at Etaneno Museum im Busch, Namibia, and the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York.
The artist has lectured and held workshops at Goldsmiths University of London, Kunstakademie Kassel, Berlin University of the Arts, New York Studio Residency Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, Mozarteum University Salzburg, and Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, and Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig.
K.E.'s work can be found in several public and private art collections, including the UBS Private Bank Collection, Deutsche Bank Collection, Daimler Contemporary Art Collection, Van der Heydt Museum Sammlung, Sammlung der Galerie der Stadt Esslingen, Museum SAFN Reykjavík, Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank Sammlung, Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg, Sammlung Provinzial Rheinland, as well as in Jochen and Susi Holy Collection (Munich), Collection Susanne Porsche (Munich), Edward & Phyllis Kwalwasser Art Collection (NYC), and Sammlung Philara (Düsseldorf), among others.
K.E.'s work is included in '100 Painters of Tomorrow,' published by Thames & Hudson in 2014.The first monograph, 'none of us and somewhere else,' was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2007 and features essays by Boris Groys (NYU) and Renate Wiehager (Daimler Contemporary). Her second monograph, 'fading song in the wide open,' was published in 2018 by DISTANZ Verlag in collaboration with the publisher Uta Grosenick and includes essays by Gregor Jansen (Kunsthalle Düsseldorf) and Gean Moreno (CIA Miami).
Tamara K.E.'s recent shows include:
2025 - Gathering, London;
2024 - ‘Sports Illustrated’, at Frieze Gallery No.9 Cork Street, with Gathering, London;
2024 - Behncke Gallery, München;
2023 - YARAT Contemporary, Baku;
2022 - "Regret" at Window Project, Tbilisi;
"The Piquantries" at Beck & Eggeling Gallery, Düsseldorf;
2021 - "Explaining Hare He was Never Here" at Aurel Scheibler Gallery, Berlin;
2020 - "Ink Under the Skin" at Aurel Scheibler Gallery, Berlin;
2019 - "5 Minutes Random Love" at B&E Contemporary, Düsseldorf;
2018 - "Language Down the Drain" at B&E Contemporary, viennacontemporary
Candle, 2018
Archival print on filmscreen, custom-made aluminum frame
208 x 154 cmEnquiry
No. 12 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No 15 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No. 18 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
One Perfect Bite, 2024
Charcoal on paper, custom-made maple birdseye plywood frame
125 x 175 cmEnquiry
Twins, 2018
Archival print on filmscreen, custom-made aluminum frame
178 x 154 cmEnquiry
Birds on the Lap, 2024
Charcoal on paper, custom-made maple birdseye plywood frame
175 x 125 cmEnquiry
No. 11 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No. 14 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No. 17 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No. 9 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cm Enquiry
The Dig, 2022
Charcoal on paper, custom-made maple birdseye plywood frame
175 x 125 cmEnquiry
A Picture and a Visitor, 2024
Charcoal on paper, custom-made maple birdseye plywood frame
175 x 125 cmEnquiry
No. 10 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No. 13 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No 16 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
No. 19 - From the series: Revisiting Fear or Not, 2014
Mixed media, Copic markers, and pencil,
custom-made cherry wood frame
25 x 20 cmEnquiry
Sofa-Schrei, 2024
Charcoal on paper, custom-made maple birdseye plywood frame
125 x 175 cmEnquiry
Wrists on fire, 2019
Archival print on filmscreen, custom-made aluminum frame
154 x 194 cmEnquiry