Artist Talk: Tal Tamam on "Fennel Eaters"

A guided discussion with Israeli painter Tal Tamam on the occasion of her first New York solo exhibition, followed by a Q&A.

Moshava Art presents Fennel Eaters, a body of work Tamam has built over the last three years at the New York Academy of Art. She describes her practice in the lineage of those who capture "the instant before gravity takes over, when awareness begins to replace innocence." Her vibrant paintings incorporate culturally significant vegetables in varying states of ripeness and consumption, exploring the charged space between fresh and forgotten. Working with 3D modeling programs to construct and reshape compositions from unusual perspectives, Tamam observes each scene from the outside, adjusting the relationships between figures before committing them to canvas. The results are subjects caught mid-expression, painted with a clumsy energy and a brushstroke that reads like a series of tumbles.

Tamam is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 2021 to 2022. Her work has been exhibited in Israel, Vienna, and London.