Tala Madani
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Tala Madani (b. Dec. 1981;
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: طلا مدنی) is an Iranian-born American artist, well-known for her contemporary paintings, drawings, and animations. She lives in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, California.


Early life and education

Madani was born in
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
, Iran in December 1981. From the age of seven, she studied calligraphy and painting. In 1994 she moved to Oregon. Madani graduated from
Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...
in
Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Benton County, Oregon, Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton Co ...
in 2004 with a BA degree in political science and visual arts. She did an internship in Berlin in 2003 with the German Council for Foreign Affairs and worked with an expert on Iranian affairs. In 2006, she graduated from Yale University School of Art in
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
with an MFA degree in painting.


Work

Madani is known for her use of cartoonish and exaggerated sexual imageries in her paintings. Her work often focuses on the relationship between the adult and child. Many of her works contain images of men in traditionally childlike positions, playing with their anuses, bodily fluids, and penises. The paintings utilize satirical humor, and are very loose in their execution. Madani works to capture the moment an idea emerges in sketchbooks and she translates this by using decisive brushwork and strong lines in her paintings, and is a visual example of real world impulses that get repressed. In 2008 Madani began incorporating animation into her work, as an attempt to bring the painting to action. Madani's work was included in the 2017
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...
held at the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
in New York City. Awards have included
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation was founded in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany to operate his estate, Laurelton Hall, in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. It was designed to be a summer retreat for artists and craftspeople. In 1946 the estate ...
(2013), Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting (2013), the De Volkskrant Art Award (2012), Pinchuk Art Centre (2012), the Van den Berch van Heemstede Stichting Fellowship (2008), and the Kees Verwey Fellowship (2007). In September 2022, the first North American survey of Madani's work opened at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles. Madani's work is found in the public museum collections of
Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...
,
Cornell Fine Arts Museum The Rollins Museum of Art is located on the Winter Park campus of Rollins College and is the only teaching museum in the greater Orlando area. The museum houses more than 5,000 objects ranging from antiquity through contemporary eras, including ...
, Whitney Museum of American Art,
Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
museum, among others.


Personal life

In 2015, Madani married
Nathaniel Mellors Nathaniel Mellors (born December 1974, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England)Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. They have two children.


See also

*
List of Iranian women artists A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


References


External links

* Review by Andrew Maerkle, i
Art Asia Pacific
2007 * Review by Robert C. Morgan, i
Brooklyn Rail
2007 * Video
"I really laugh when I paint." An interview with Tala Madani
by
Louisiana Channel Louisiana Channel is a non-profit web TV channel launched in 2012 and based at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. The channel has developed into the world’s largest archive of contemporary art, featuring the artists, with ...
, 2013 * Archived 28 June 2014. *Works of Tala Madani, i
Artsy.et
* New Yorker Magazine / January 23, 2023, pp. 42-49 / Article link
Profiles: "A Raucous Assault / How the Iranian American artist Tala Madani sees men--and women." (subscribers/limited views)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madani, Tala 1981 births Living people 21st-century Iranian women artists Iranian women painters 21st-century Iranian painters American people of Iranian descent Artists from Tehran Oregon State University alumni Artists from Los Angeles Yale School of Art alumni American artists of Iranian descent Alumni of Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten