Tali Lennox: Tremors

Los Angeles

February 26 – April 6, 2024

Press Release

When was the last time you felt a tremor? In this anthropomorphic visual journey, artist Tali Lennox enlists erupting volcanoes, glowing forests and mystical landscapes to explore the pleasure of submitting to the chaos and the power of nature. The phantasmagoric collection finds a range of female bodies in varying states of capitulation to an onslaught of mother nature's harshest elements, finding common ground between internal and external states of disorder.

 

Originally inspired by the German anthology of illuminations Das Wunderzeichenbuch: The Book of Miracles, this collection takes the lead from the book of Renaissance paintings that depict both biblical and folkloric tales with a decidedly apocalyptic flair. In her first solo exhibition with Nicodim, Lennox builds on this uniquely sanguine approach to natural disasters, imbuing her canvases with a dark spirituality that is sometimes terrifying, sometimes spectacular.

 

At the onset of the collection a luminous shell hovers mysteriously above two figures in hypnagogic repose, inviting the viewer to suspend reality and consider the surrealist possibilities susurrating to us from within the conch. Shells and oysters continue to proliferate the canvases, appearing sometimes as ominous hallucinations and at other times morphing directly into the features of the painting's subjects, symboilsing a surrender and a fusing to nature. Oysters, mussels and shells have special symbolic meaning: communicating an ability to siphon energy from and exist in symbiosis with nature. They also represent balance, strength and the pleasure of truly knowing oneself gained from introspection and self-analysis.

 

Lennox does not conceal the innate sexuality found in the form of the oyster and instead celebrates the erotic parallels between natural form and the human body evoked in the cracked open shell. Tears are free flowing throughout, yet their presence is cathartic instead of pitiful, expressing a climactic release of feeling and tension that celebrates emotional intensity. The connection between feminine power and nature is absorbed into the fiber of the work, where the potency of feminine desire and a celebration of fetishistic impulses are blended with the savage wisdom of mother nature without distinction. Bubbling volcanoes, fiery lava and inescapably dark forests are depicted with forbidding detachment, silently declaring that you cannot have beauty without bedlam.

 

With the use of shells, oceanic abysses and a striking image of a form shrouded in a luminous white cocoon deep in a forest undergrowth, Lennox summons the spirits of Aphrodite and Demeter. Aphrodite, goddess of love, lust, beauty, pleasure and passion is closely linked to the ocean, having been birthed from violent sea foam. Her sacred colors are white and red that dominate the collection and consecrate the fear and wonder of nature that is explored throughout. An effervescent green also haunts large swathes of canvas and is the sacred color of Demeter, goddess of agriculture and nature. It is said that Demeter would give life after death to those who learned her mysteries and the ghostly green expanses that spread like a thin fog seem to reiterate her ancient whisper to aspire to this greater knowledge.

Dense with reference, symbolism and suggestion, the collection is a pandora's box of magical realism, mythology and folklore. Blending the medieval with the modern, Lennox ponders the human condition and our never ending obsession with the end of times. By confronting the catastrophic environmental upheaval one senses overwhelming the collective psyche, the ultimate helplessness and fragility of mankind at the hands of earthly rotations is put in the spotlight. Walking the line between dream and reality, bodies are mutated and distorted, organs are nonchalantly exposed and suits of armor are pierced with prismatic light.

 

Lennox presents a unique and vivid study in the tension between constraint and release and pleasure and pain that serves ultimately as a spiritual hymn to both the destructive and restorative properties of nature. Tremors takes the viewer on a hallucinatory journey with a body of work that beckons from a world that could be at once a utopia or an apocalypse. But there is no need to be scared. After all, life is but a dream.

— Katie Victoria Brown

 

Tali Lennox (b. 1993, London) lives and works in Paris, France. Tali Lennox is a figurative painter whose dreamlike paintings evoke scenes of erotic and decadent chambers and mystifying landscapes seemingly from both a bygone era and a mythology of her own creation. The magnetism of the work stems from this desire to play with and explore parallels between the human and spiritual, the domestic and the universal. Elemental and folkloric tones fill Lennox's sleek, shiny paintings that suggest the heightened drama of German Expressionists mixed with ancient symbology to give the pieces a sensitive naturalism. Her muses, both human and not, convey a beguiling blend of desire, yearning, pain and lust.

There is a pervasive sense of climactic pleasure that energizes the work and plays with the sexual power of feminine energy. The bodies and creatures that inhabit the canvases do so with an ethereal and sanguine intensity that invites the gaze skin deep and beyond. Inspired in part by a continued interest in natural disasters, ancient folklore and spirit realms, Lennox ponders the miraculous enigma of the human experience as it exists within the natural world, never shying away from its beauty or its chaos. The presence of seeming turmoil in the exposed innards, submerged shipwrecks and looming volcanic eruptions are evocative of the artist's carnal probe into the energy of Eros and Psyche. The work serves ultimately as an exploration of the electric power that binds catastrophe and ecstasy, order and anarchy, love and death.

 

Recent exhibitions include Tremors, Nicodim, Los Angeles (solo); Surrealism and Witchcraft, LAMB, London (2023); Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest: 10 Years, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest (2023); MATERNITY LEAVE: NONE OF WOMEN BORN, Nicodim in collaboration with the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2023); DISEMBODIED curated by Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, Nicodim, New York (2023); Lotus of Nephthys, Sebastien Bertrand Galerie, Geneva (2022, solo); Women in Paris, Eric Hussenot Gallery, Paris (2021); Rhizome Image of Thought, Kandlehofer Galerie, Vienna (2020); Ballad of Linda Leven, Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York (2019, solo).

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Tali Lennox

Belladonna, 2023

oil on linen

161h x 130w cm

63.39h x 51.18w in

Tali Lennox

Belladonna, 2023

oil on linen

161h x 130w cm

63.39h x 51.18w in

Tali Lennox

Fool's Arcadia, 2023

oil on linen

188h x 170w cm

74h x 67w in

Tali Lennox

Fool's Arcadia, 2023

oil on linen

188h x 170w cm

74h x 67w in

Tali Lennox

Pompeii Kiss, 2023

oil on linen

100h x 73w cm

39h x 29w in

Tali Lennox

Pompeii Kiss, 2023

oil on linen

100h x 73w cm

39h x 29w in

Tali Lennox

The Bride, 2023

oil on linen

195h x 130w cm

77h x 51w in

Tali Lennox

The Bride, 2023

oil on linen

195h x 130w cm

77h x 51w in

Tali Lennox

The Wreck, 2023

oil on linen

194h x 130w cm

76h x 51w in

Tali Lennox

The Wreck, 2023

oil on linen

194h x 130w cm

76h x 51w in

Tali Lennox

Heavenly Desserts, 2023

oil on linen

61h x 46w cm

24.02h x 18.11w in

Tali Lennox

Heavenly Desserts, 2023

oil on linen

61h x 46w cm

24.02h x 18.11w in

Tali Lennox

Vial, 2023

oil on linen

61h x 30w cm

24.02h x 11.81w in

Tali Lennox

Vial, 2023

oil on linen

61h x 30w cm

24.02h x 11.81w in

Tali Lennox

Moth Grotto, 2023

oil on linen

130h x 89w cm

51h x 35w in

Tali Lennox

Moth Grotto, 2023

oil on linen

130h x 89w cm

51h x 35w in

Tali Lennox

Love Belt, 2023

oil on linen

46h x 38w cm

18h x 15w in

Tali Lennox

Love Belt, 2023

oil on linen

46h x 38w cm

18h x 15w in

Tali Lennox

Warm Chains, 2023

oil on linen

73h x 54w cm

29h x 21w in

Tali Lennox

Warm Chains, 2023

oil on linen

73h x 54w cm

29h x 21w in

Tali Lennox

Heart Gush, 2023

oil on linen

161h x 130w cm

63h x 51w in

Tali Lennox

Heart Gush, 2023

oil on linen

161h x 130w cm

63h x 51w in

Tali Lennox

Sunken Pearls, 2023

oil on linen

119h x 88w cm

47h x 35w in

Tali Lennox

Sunken Pearls, 2023

oil on linen

119h x 88w cm

47h x 35w in

Tali Lennox

Mourning Dew, 2023

oil on linen

116h x 89w cm

46h x 35w in

Tali Lennox

Mourning Dew, 2023

oil on linen

116h x 89w cm

46h x 35w in

Tali Lennox

Touching the Vessel, 2023

oil on linen

159h x 131w cm

63h x 52w in

Tali Lennox

Touching the Vessel, 2023

oil on linen

159h x 131w cm

63h x 52w in

Tali Lennox

Songs of Inertia, 2023

oil on linen

92h x 73w cm

36h x 29w in

Tali Lennox

Songs of Inertia, 2023

oil on linen

92h x 73w cm

36h x 29w in

Tali Lennox

Blue Velvet, 2023

oil on linen

159h x 131w cm

63h x 52w in

Tali Lennox

Blue Velvet, 2023

oil on linen

159h x 131w cm

63h x 52w in

Tali Lennox

Belladonna, 2023

oil on linen

161h x 130w cm

63.39h x 51.18w in
Tali Lennox

Fool's Arcadia, 2023

oil on linen

188h x 170w cm

74h x 67w in
Tali Lennox

Pompeii Kiss, 2023

oil on linen

100h x 73w cm

39h x 29w in
Tali Lennox

The Bride, 2023

oil on linen

195h x 130w cm

77h x 51w in
Tali Lennox

The Wreck, 2023

oil on linen

194h x 130w cm

76h x 51w in
Tali Lennox

Heavenly Desserts, 2023

oil on linen

61h x 46w cm

24.02h x 18.11w in
Tali Lennox

Vial, 2023

oil on linen

61h x 30w cm

24.02h x 11.81w in
Tali Lennox

Moth Grotto, 2023

oil on linen

130h x 89w cm

51h x 35w in
Tali Lennox

Love Belt, 2023

oil on linen

46h x 38w cm

18h x 15w in
Tali Lennox

Warm Chains, 2023

oil on linen

73h x 54w cm

29h x 21w in
Tali Lennox

Heart Gush, 2023

oil on linen

161h x 130w cm

63h x 51w in
Tali Lennox

Sunken Pearls, 2023

oil on linen

119h x 88w cm

47h x 35w in
Tali Lennox

Mourning Dew, 2023

oil on linen

116h x 89w cm

46h x 35w in
Tali Lennox

Touching the Vessel, 2023

oil on linen

159h x 131w cm

63h x 52w in
Tali Lennox

Songs of Inertia, 2023

oil on linen

92h x 73w cm

36h x 29w in
Tali Lennox

Blue Velvet, 2023

oil on linen

159h x 131w cm

63h x 52w in