Tamara Muller’s first museum solo exhibition

The paintings of Tamara Muller (Wehe-den Hoorn, 1975) have their own distinct style. While the figures in her work bear her face, Muller does not consider her paintings and drawings as self-portraits. She describes her work as a ‘paste-and-cut’ theatre about power, guilt and shame. Paintings and works on paper by Tamara Muller can be seen in the exhibition PLAY in the Drents Museum in Assen from 29 May to 19 September 2021. It is her first museum solo exhibition.

Muller often begins by taking selfies, which she prints and uses to make collages; these then serve as the starting point for a series of artworks. The exhibition PLAY counts no fewer than 39 paintings and 28 works on paper by Tamara Muller. The exhibition is in the Drostenhuis in the Drents Museum.
 
The game of life

Muller paints ‘the game of life’: the beauty, ugliness, good and bad aspects of ordinary life all jumbled up. Contrasts are therefore frequent in her work. Lovable versus hateful, young versus mature and violence versus peace. Through fairytale-like and sometimes unsettling elements, Muller confers an alienating quality onto domestic scenes. Each figure in her paintings bears the artist’s face, one of which usually looks directly at the viewer, thereby making him/her part of and complicit in the scene.

Tamara Muller

Tamara Muller obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 1997 and her Master of Fine Arts degree at St. Joost School of Art & Design in ‘s Hertogenbosch in 2007. Muller’s work has previously been exhibited in the Drents Museum, the Gasunie (Groningen), Museum De Buitenplaats (Eelde), Museum of Modern Art (Arnhem) and in galleries worldwide.

Five female artists in a row

PLAY is the first in a series of five consecutive solo exhibitions of female artists that the Drents Museum is mounting in 2021/2022. The artists are: Tamara Muller, Deborah Poynton, Frida Kahlo, Kristina Schuldt and Johanna van Eijbergen. For additional information, please see: drentsmuseum.nl 

The opening date of PLAY (May 29, 2021) is subject to change and dependent on COVID measures. 

Press photographs:

  

  

Click on the photographs to enlarge them.

Captions:
(top to bottom and left to right)
Symbiotic I, 2016, acrylic on linen, 120 x 150 cm, private collection
Beasts, 2006, oil on linen, 50 x 60 cm, Drents Museum
Off With Her Head IV, 2016, acrylic on linen, 50 x 50 cm, private collection
Of Mice and Men I, 2019, acrylic on linen, 180 x 210 cm, artist’s collection